(02/04/26) BATON ROUGE, La. — Growing up in Rapides Parish as the son of a U.S. Air Force recruiter, LSU AgCenter entomologist Tyler Musgrove may not have been destined to become the state’s latest rice specialist, but an agriculturally rich upbringing certainly didn’t hurt.

Musgrove’s hometown of Forest Hill, sometimes called the “Nursery Capital of Louisiana” and “Bloom Town,” has hundreds of nurseries along Louisiana Highway 112 and U.S. Highway 165.

“My family is in the horticulture business. My parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, they do plant nurseries,” he said. “So that’s the world that I was raised in.”

Musgrove said his love of agriculture continued to grow in high school and college, when he worked as a field scout under Rusty Elston, a crop consultant in Cheneyville.

“It was the experience and mentorship I had under Rusty that was most responsible in shaping where I wanted to go in terms of career,” Musgrove said.

Musgrove studied agricultural business with a concentration in plant science at Louisiana Tech University, where he graduated in 2017 before beginning his graduate work at LSU, eventually earning a doctorate in entomology in December 2025.

He did his dissertation work under AgCenter entomologist Blake Wilson, conducting research on furrow-irrigated rice in north Louisiana, specifically on rice billbug control methods. He credits Wilson for preparing him for his position as state rice specialist.

“Blake does a really good job of advocating for his students and putting them in positions where they can take advantage of opportunities,” he said.

Musgrove was named state rice specialist Jan. 1. The position is intended to be Louisiana rice producers’ primary point of contact at the AgCenter.

Musgrove also has a 20% research appointment, so he gets to conduct research on farms and collaborate with specialists in other fields. These are only a part of his current duties.

“I am also in charge of coordinating the rice verification program,” he said. “That is a program where producers newer to the business can enroll, and our job is to train them in managing rice according to AgCenter recommendations that we have developed over the years through our university research. It’s the one program that most directly takes what we do in research and translates it into real-world extension solutions.”

Musgrove said his entomology training is beneficial given the emerging challenge that’s worrying Louisiana rice producers — the rice delphacid. It’s an invasive planthopper that has come front and center in his and his colleagues’ pest management conversations in the past several months.

“It’s posing a significant concern to rice producers because of how destructive it is and how new of a pest it is,” he said. “We have to develop the research to learn how to control it.”

Musgrove said he hopes the recent harsh winter weather will be a blessing in disguise in managing the insect, which thrives in more tropical environments.

“There is an opportunity for Mother Nature to help us out in suppressing these pest populations now so that they have a slower start in the spring and going into the summer,” he said. “We’re putting together a statewide monitoring program for the insect as well as the virus that’s associated with it, and we’ll continue that program well into the summer and into the fall.”

Because the insect is a late-season pest, the fall months are when AgCenter researchers expect its economic impacts to hit, Musgrove said. That is when they will have a better understanding of whether the freezes were beneficial.

Musgrove is looking forward to getting to know producers, learning what their most pressing concerns are and working with them on the most economical solutions while still producing rich yields.

“A lot of the recent conversations have been centered around the rice delphacid and how we can partner with producers going forward and collaborate with on farm activities,” he said. “Right now, I’m getting my feet under me, learning who’s who in the Louisiana rice industry, putting names to faces and determining what their needs are.”

LSU AgCenter entomologist Tyler Musgrove was named Louisiana’s state rice specialist. He started Jan. 1 and is looking forward to assisting rice producers across the state with a variety of concerns — not the least of which is the rice delphacid. Photo by Schyler Thibodeaux

Newly appointed state rice specialist Tyler Musgrove examines furrow-irrigated rice for rice billbug injury. Photo by Schyler Thibodeaux