Bugs Away

Specialists Speaking – JARROD T. HARDKE – ARKANSAS

You can’t outguess insects, but you can be on the lookout. Drought conditions create interesting concerns for developing insect problems. On one hand, there can be fewer alternate hosts for insects to build up on. On the other hand, that leaves crops in the field as the most desirable food source.

Early season pests rice water weevil and grape colaspis are largely controlled by our various insecticide seed treatments. Unfortunately, we have little experience with their stability and performance in record drought conditions. In theory, dry conditions with little moisture moving through the profile will keep these treatments more stable in the seed zone.

Fall armyworm populations may be building early in the Southwest U.S., which is where they migrate from when we have issues with them. It has been mentioned that the numbers they’re seeing now are reminiscent of 2021 levels when Arkansas experienced high numbers at times. Luckily, we have substantial defoliation research since that time to guide control efforts should fall armyworm show up.

Everyone will continue talking about rice delphacid and for good reason. This pest was recorded in Arkansas for the first time in history in 2025. While it arrived late so that few total acres were impacted, some of those acres infested by delphacid suffered severe injury.

We have some limited control options we hope will help if rice delphacid overwinters here or makes a return visit. Most important will be the need to scout acres beginning at late boot and to correctly identify this tiny hopper while numbers are low. Delphacid can build to high numbers very quickly and once it does, control becomes much more difficult.

Rice stink bug population buildup is usually built on flowering grasses earlier in the season before rice starts heading. It can be tough to guess how their cycle will time out and whether they will be a mild or more severe problem. May as well flip a coin on that guess. Remember that we get little control out of our pyrethroids anymore, so we must rely on neonicotinoids. As a side note, “throwing in” a pyrethroid when not needed can worsen later rice stink bug numbers and if rice delphacid is present, it can flair those to high numbers.

As always when talking insects, get out there and scout! Let us know if we can help.   ∆

JARROD T. HARDKE

ARKANSAS