Comments for The Beat Sheet

Comment on Release of insect identification guide for pulse industry in the North region by Kate Charleston

Kate Charleston — Tue, 15 May 2012 00:00:13 +0000

Feedback on the Good Bug,Bad Bug guide has been very positive:

Thankyou so much for sending the Good Bug, Bad Bug book. It is going to be an amazing resource for us. What a fabulous book!

I have received my two copies of ‘Good bug, bad bug’ today – thankyou very much for sending them through to me. It looks like it will be a very handy reference.

Received your excellent ‘Good Bug, Bad Bug?’ book today. It’s fabulous

Hey I got the book today. It’s awesome thanks heaps

Comment on Slugs in Seedling Crops by Mike Balzer

Mike Balzer — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 10:26:04 +0000

At last recognition of of this problem in QLD.
Good work team.

Comment on Mirid research trials on the Darling Downs by Kate Charleston

Kate Charleston — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 23:16:46 +0000

The traps I am using are Bulk Standard Funnel Traps (green colour) with pheromone lures and pesticide strips (to kill insects). The trap colour does not attract mirids.
Moazzem

Comment on Mirid research trials on the Darling Downs by Russell Fox

Russell Fox — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 12:34:11 +0000

i would like to know more about the traps you are using. Are they coloured to attract the mirids as well as using the pheromones.

Regards Russell

Comment on Black Soil Scarab Damage to Winter Cereals by Tony Lockrey

Tony Lockrey — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 01:39:01 +0000

Have noted some scarab larvae in several weak patches of young sorghum this spring around Moree. Patches are approximately 25m x 25m or similar and irregular in shape. Easy to find 2-3 larvae under plants. We have experienced (too) good moisture conditions that have allowed plants to survive on minimal root structure but I expect when we experience some heat the patches will fold. One patch (in a 1000ha block of sorghum) has shown up in a series of previous crops grown there over the past 5 years and the grower recalls there being a bad patch of cooch there initially. Perhaps that has been the trigger for egg lay?

Comment on Black Soil Scarab Damage to Winter Cereals by Hugh Reardon-Smith

Hugh Reardon-Smith — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 06:00:20 +0000

I have seen black scarab damage on particular paddocks south of Clifton. Last summer they chewed the roots off sorghum coming into head and killed out circular patches. Only known control is to cultivate the affected areas to slow their spread – the crop was dying anyway.

Comment on Black Soil Scarab Damage to Winter Cereals by Kate Charleston

Kate Charleston — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 03:25:40 +0000

The black scarab beetle found on the Darling Downs are large third instar grubs which will start pupating in mid to late summer, with adults eventually emerging in spring. Therefore, affected fields will still support larvae through early summer crop establishment.

The larvae feed predominantly on roots of grasses hence sorghum is likely to be susceptible to attack by these larvae. It is less likely that broadleaf crops such as cotton will be attacked, and if scarab larvae are present in fields planted to cotton, they are likely to have a preference for grass weeds than the cotton crop.

Crops suffering root damage caused by the scarab larvae, will suffer more in dry, hot conditions where they struggle to transpire sufficiently and growth is severely retarded.

There are no registered insecticides for the control of black scarabs., and in any case post-sowing it is not possible to apply insecticide that would contact these larvae as they do not come to the soil surface. It is also unlikely that seed treatments will have an impact on the large, damaging larvae – experience in sugarcane shows that even in-furrow treatments will only control the small larvae.

It is important to note that there are many species of scarab, a large number of these are non-pest species so identification of larvae is important.

Comment on Black Soil Scarab Damage to Winter Cereals by Glenn Milne

Glenn Milne — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 00:39:05 +0000

Can theses larva cause damage in cotton and sorghum as we have seen a lot of them in the cultivation where summer crop is to be planted?
Cheers Glenn

Comment on Exotic mealybug species – a major new pest in cotton by Muhammad Ashfaq

Muhammad Ashfaq — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 04:39:40 +0000

Mealybug, Phenacoccus solenopsis had been a serious cotton pest in Pakistan between 2005 and 2008. In 2009 and now in 2010 mealybug population is completely under control in almost all the cotton growing areas of Pakistan. The major factor in suppressing mealybug population is Aenasius bambawalei, an encyrtid parasitoid. A huge biological control program of cotton mealybug is in place in Pakistan which mainly rely on mass rearing and release of A. bambawalei and a predator, Cryptolaemus sp. The mass rearing of A. bambawaei is under threat due to its recently discovered hyperparasitoid. Correct identification of the hyperparasitoid has not been confirmed yet in Pakistan.

Comment on Exotic mealybug species – a major new pest in cotton by Pala Ram

Pala Ram — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 14:13:24 +0000

We have reported several parasitoids emerging from mummies of Phenacoccus solenopsis in India. These were Aenasius bambawalei Hayat, Promuscidea unfasciativentris Girault, Myiocnema comperei Ashmead, Prochiloneurus albifuniculus (Hayat, Alam and Agarwal) and Marietta leopardina Motschulsky. Among these A. bambawalei is the only primary parasitoid and rest others are hyperparasitoids of A. bambawalei. M. compere dominated among the hyperparasitoids. An unidentified eulophid was also recordrd. A. bambawalei provided complete control of P. solenopsis on cotton in Haryana, India. (Journal of Biological Control, 24 (2): 104–109, 2010)