Yesterday, at the Simon field site tour stop, Mr. Eddie Eskew told me about a field of rice that was suffering from a severe infestation of armyworms. Up to this point in the season, I’ve had a few calls about armyworms, but nothing out of the ordinary. We wanted to collect caterpillars to add to our lab colonies on campus, so we headed to the field today.

If you are wondering why I’ve been a little quiet lately, it’s because we’ve been busy cutting test plots and gathering harvest data. After long days in this horrendous heat, it’s hard to find a desire to sit at a computer and write. I’ll wait until all the numbers are in to make any comments about the effect of treatments on yields. In the meantime, I thought you might like to see some equipment in action. The best part of harvest is that it really is a gathering of friends.

Solving the whodunit mystery of insect damage in a rice crop will be easier with a new online program developed by the LSU AgCenter.

The Mexican rice borer, a threat to sugarcane and rice, has moved eastward from Texas extending farther into Louisiana. On Nov. 22, 2010, four male adults were found in a pheromone trap about six miles southwest of Sulphur, according to Gene Reagan, LSU AgCenter entomologist. Chris Carlton, director of the Louisiana State Arthropod Museum, confirmed that these trap catches were Mexican rice borers.

I’m pleased to announce the release of the Louisiana Online Rice Pest Identification Guide. The purpose of this guide is to improve identification of arthropods (insects and mites) that damage rice in Louisiana. Once the arthropod is properly identified, a link to the Louisiana pest management guidelines is provided. Although the arthropods featured infest rice in Louisiana, this online guide should be a useful tool in other Southern rice producing states.

Anna and I have been working together to summarize the 2009 Louisiana rice insects survey data, and the graphs are now starting to take shape. We observed some interesting trends. Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll post a series of blogs that will summarize some of the highlights of our findings.

On Monday, Johnny Saichuk (rice specialist), Donna Lee (county agent – East Caroll Parish) and I headed over to Beaumont, Texas for the annual Mexican Rice Borer (MRB) Site Visit. This meeting is held annually to share the latest results of a long-running cooperative research effort between Texas A&M and the LSU AgCenter.

A new online forum for the rice community has been created by Kevin Reis (www.firstgrain.com) called RiceLoop. I set up my account last week and posted one comment “Hey Rice Community – is anyone out there using blogging or social media to interact with their rice producers?” Within 12 hours I had 5 comments from three different individuals.

On Feb 7, 2011, US EPA granted the Experimental Use Permit (EUP) for NipsIt INSIDE® Insecticide for seed treatment use in rice. The EUP is for the states of AR, LA, MS and TX for a total of 40,000 acres for 2011. This includes 5,000 acres in Louisiana. Rice water weevil and grape colaspis are target pests on the label. According to the EUP, use of this product is restricted to dry-seeded rice in drill-planters. The seeding rate cannot exceed 15

This week the House of Representatives will debate H.R. 1, the Full Year Continuing Resolution (CR), to fund federal departments, agencies, and programs through Sept. 30, 2011. As reported last week, the CR would reduce the topline number for the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA is the USDA agency that supports Land-grant research and extension) by $217.056 million compared to FY 2010.