Tobacco at the Eastern 4 location. Photo: Cameron McLamb
It is our seventh week of scouting at our IPM and grower standard fields. The tobacco plants are looking healthy, given substantial sunshine and rain over the past week. Budworms have started showing up in greater numbers, and flea beetles numbers have started to decline at most locations. Tomato spotted wilt virus infections have started developing in greater number of plants, but they are still at low levels in all of our fields.
Here is the week seven scouting report for our commercial fields:
Scouting Report , Eastern 1 – Grower Standard Field
Insect observation
No. aphid infested plants
Flea beetles/plant
Percent tobacco budworm infestation
Hornworms/plant
Percent cutworm damaged plants
Other insects
Treatment needed?
0 – No treatment
0.02 beetles/plant – No treatment
0 – No treatment
0 – No treatment
0 – No treatment
2.6 thrips/plant (4% of plants infected with Tomato spotted wilt virus)
Scouting Report, Eastern 2 – IPM Field
Insect observation
No. aphid infested plants
Flea beetles/plant
Percent tobacco budworm infestation
Hornworms/plant
Percent cutworm damaged plants
Other insects
Treatment needed?
0 – No Treatment
0 – No treatment
2% budworm infested plants – No treatment
0 – No treatment
0 – No Treatment
2.9 thrips/plant(6% of plants infected with TSWV)
Scouting Report , Eastern 3 – Grower Standard Field
Insect observation
No. aphid infested plants
Flea beetles/plant
Percent tobacco budworm infestation
Hornworms/plant
Percent cutworm damaged plants
Other insects
Treatment needed?
0 – No treatment
0.15 beetles/plant – No treatment
0 – No treatment
0 – No treatment
0 – No treatment
26.9 thrips/plant
Scouting Report, Eastern 4 – IPM Field
Insect observation
No. aphid infested plants
Flea beetles/plant
Percent tobacco budworm infestation
Hornworms/plant
Percent cutworm damaged plants
Other insects
Treatment needed?
0 – No Treatment
0.18 beetles/plant – No treatment
3% budworm infested plants – No treatment
0 – No treatment
0 – No Treatment
42 thrips/plant
Scouting Report , Piedmont 1 – Grower Standard Field
Insect observation
No. aphid infested plants
Flea beetles/plant
Percent tobacco budworm infestation
Hornworms/plant
Percent cutworm damaged plants
Other insects
Treatment needed?
0 – No treatment
0.10 beetles/plant – No treatment
0 – No treatment
0 – No treatment
0 – No treatment
3.2 thrips/plant
Scouting Report, Piedmont 2 – IPM Field
Insect observation
No. aphid infested plants
Flea beetles/plant
Percent tobacco budworm infestation
Hornworms/plant
Percent cutworm damaged plants
Other insects
Treatment needed?
0 – No Treatment
0.02 beetles/plant – No treatment
0 – No treatment
0 – No treatment
0 – No Treatment
2.3 thrips/plant
Here are the scouting reports from the control plots for our experiments at the Upper Coastal Plain Research Station near Rocky Mount, NC and the Lower Coastal Plain Research Station near Kinston, NC. For some of these experiments, the control plots receive no insecticide treatments for the entire season. For some of the experiments, we are interested in only caterpillar pests so all plants in the experiment, including the control plots, are treated in the greenhouse with imidacloprid to prevent other early season pests.
On Station, Kinston – Control plants with no insecticide treatment
Insect observation
No. aphid infested plants
Flea beetles/plant
Percent tobacco budworm infestation
Hornworms/plant
Percent cutworm damaged plants
Other insects
Treatment needed?
0 – No Treatment
0.03 beetles/plant – No treatment
5% budworm infested plants – No treatment
0 – No treatment
0 – No Treatment
4% of plants infected with Tomato spotted wilt virus
On Station, Kinston – Control plants treated with imidacloprid
Insect observation
No. aphid infested plants
Flea beetles/plant
Percent tobacco budworm infestation
Hornworms/plant
Percent cutworm damaged plants
Other insects
Treatment needed?
0 – No Treatment
0.09 beetles/plant – No treatment
3% budworm infested plants – No treatment
0 – No treatment
0 – No Treatment
3% of plants infected with TSWV
On Station, Rocky Mount – Control plants with no insecticide treatment
Insect observation
No. aphid infested plants
Flea beetles/plant
Percent tobacco budworm infestation
Hornworms/plant
Percent cutworm damaged plants
Other insects
Treatment needed?
0 – No Treatment
0.25 beetles/plant – No treatment
0 – No treatment
0 – No treatment
0 – No Treatment
0 – No treatment
On Station, Rocky Mount – Control plants treated with imidacloprid
Insect observation
No. aphid infested plants
Flea beetles/plant
Percent tobacco budworm infestation
Hornworms/plant
Percent cutworm damaged plants
Other insects
Treatment needed?
0 – No Treatment
0 – No treatment
1% budworm infested plants – No treatment
0 – No treatment
0 – No Treatment
0 – No treatment
Notes: We have started seeing higher numbers of budworms at our locations, but none are near the threshold where treatment is recommended. Weather could have an effect on pest numbers due to some heavy rainfall over the past week.
