Browse Plant Pests and Diseases Stories - Page 23

If it were a matter of life over death, most people would munch on a grasshopper. But would you do so purely by choice? University of Georgia student Harman Johar is counting on it.

As the seasons turn, commercial bell pepper growers in the Southeast share a common foe: the sun.

Vegetable gardens and compost piles are usually located in the sunniest part of the landscape. Unfortunately, fire ants like sunshine, too. They often invade compost piles and vegetable gardens seeking food, warmth and moisture.

University of Georgia researcher John Ruberson is looking for natural enemies of the kudzu bug in an effort to fight the pest’s spread across the Southern states. A tiny Asian wasp may be the best option.

Two years ago, the kudzu bug arrived in Georgia and has been aggravating homeowners and feeding on kudzu and soybeans ever since. Now, some of Georgia’s Latin American trading partners are worried that the legume-eating pest may be headed south.

“There is a big spider in our living room!” my wife screamed. As a graduate student in entomology at the University of Georgia, I’m accustomed to dealing with insects. Having just moved to Georgia from India, she is not.

There won't be any lions, tigers or bears, but the University of Georgia’s annual Insect Zoo will let visitors get up close and personal with roaches, crickets and other bugs.

Nature is a system of checks and balances, as is the case between aphids and wasps. Aphids feed on plants; wasps lay eggs inside aphids, killing them and increasing plant production. Some aphids harbor bacterial symbionts, or smaller organisms that live in close association with a host, that provide protection by killing the internally developing wasps. Wasps are able to decipher which aphids are infected and use superparasitism to override the poison.

The 2012 Georgia Pest Management Handbook is now available. The thirty-third Commercial Edition, published by the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, provides more than 800 pages of current information on selection, application and safe use of pest control chemicals around farms, homes, urban areas, recreational areas and other environments where pests may occur.

Thousands of broken trees line the banks of the Chattooga River. The dead gray stabs were once evergreen monsters offering shade to trout and picturesque views to visitors. These Eastern hemlocks are dying rapidly, and University of Georgia researchers are working to save them.