The rice water weevil is the most important early season insect pest of rice in Louisiana.
The rice delphacid is an important pest of rice but it is currently not thought to be present in Louisiana rice production areas.
Both larvae and adults feed on young rice plants. Thrips injure plants by using a scraping mouth part to tear the leaf tissue, and then extract the plant liquids. This injury causes desiccation and is typically not a problem, except during dry, windy conditions.
The southern green stink bug has piercing-sucking mouth parts. Usually it is first noticed as dead or dying leaves on isolated plants or groups of plants.
Aphids are small, soft-bodied insects with piercing sucking mouthparts. Aphids suck the juices from rice and cause stunting and chlorosis.
Rice seed midge larvae feed on the embryo of germinating seeds or the developing roots of young seedlings.
Larvae tunnel between the layers of the leaf, attacking and killing leaves closest to the water.
South American rice miner maggot injures rice, causing large, elongated lesions on the margins of emerging leaves.
The panicle rice mite injures rice plants both directly by feeding on cells of rice leaves, stems and kernels and indirectly by vectoring and/or facilitating the establishment of pathogens.
Billbugs injure multiple crops such as corn, sugarcane, wheat, rye and barley. Occasionally, it can be found in rice.
Fall armyworm larvae feed on the leaves of young rice plants, destroying large amounts of tissue.
European Corn borer has the potential for severe infestations in rice in central and northern latitudes of Louisiana.
Rice stalk borer is a sporadic pest of rice in Louisiana.
Sugarcane borer injury to rice results from stem borer larvae feeding on plant tissue as they tunnel inside the stem.
The Mexican rice borer is a devastating pest of sugarcane and a serious pest of rice.
Chinch bugs tend to be more of a problem in drill-seeded rice because of the delayed application of permanent flood.
This pest can be found damaging fields of dry-seeded rice in a soybean-rice rotation.
Rice stink bug is the most important late-season pest in Louisiana rice.