What’s New? What’s New?
in the next few years. Mexican rice borers are not obvious pests in rice until the crop is in the boot stage. But by the time it is found within rice plants, Reagan said, studies with Texas colleagues show that the population jumps rapidly. Reagan said that prompted the question to arise regarding the pest’s overwintering habitat. Between growing seasons, the insect is found in high numbers in grasses such as Johnsongrass and vaseygrass. Once the insect bores into sugarcane, insecticides don’t work well because the cavity created by the borer is filled with chewed plant material, frass, blocking a chemical’s entry, he said. Insecticides work better on the pest in rice, Reagan said. However, three applications may be required in some east Texas areas. A new seed treatment, Dermacor, appears to help control the pest in rice. Originally, Dermacor was developed as a seed treatment for drill-seeded rice against the rice water weevil. Bruce Schultz
Rice farming sustainability program starts The Kellogg Company of Battle Creek, Mich., recently announced a partnership with the LSU AgCenter to develop a sustainability program for Louisiana rice producers who grow rice for Kellogg’s products. The program will rely on expertise within the LSU AgCenter and with Louisiana rice millers to help develop a master grower program that focuses on environmentally sound and profitable rice production, according to Diane Holdorf, Kellogg vice president of environmental stewardship. The program will be based on the AgCenter’s Master Farmer program, said Steve Linscombe, director of the LSU AgCenter Rice Research Station and rice breeder. “The ultimate goal of the program will be to ensure this rice is produced in a sustainable and profitable manner,” Linscombe said. Kellogg has become concerned about sustainability within its own corporate operations, as well as its suppliers, Holdorf said. The company has set a series of goals of waste reduction, decreased
6
Louisiana Agriculture, Fall 2010
energy and water usage, and generating less greenhouse gas. The company also will apply sustainability principles to other key cereal ingredients, including corn, wheat and palm oil. Bruce Schultz
Rice insect guide now online Solving the whodunit mystery of insect damage in a rice crop will be easier with a new online program developed by the LSU AgCenter. Using the process is as easy as playing the board game “Clue” because it uses a simple process of elimination, according to LSU AgCenter experts. But instead of guessing if the perpetrator was Col. Mustard armed with a lead pipe, the usual suspects will be arthropods (insects and mites) such as the rice water weevil, billbug, chinch bug or spider mites. The program originated from a conversation with Evangeline Parish farmer Richard Fontenot, said LSU AgCenter entomologist Natalie Hummel. “The whole project was his idea.” Anyone with access to the Internet through a smart phone can get to the guide in the field and through process of elimination, click on a list of symptoms and narrow down the pest and suggested treatments. “It doesn’t require you to be an entomologist to use it,” Hummel said.
The website starts by asking users to identify the location of visible damage, then lists descriptions of different types of damage with photographs to illustrate the feeding signs so the user can identify the likely culprit. For example, feeding on the lower part of the plant brings the user to the options of feeding signs on the leaf blade or another part of the plant. If the feeding is on the surface of the leaf blade, the next step is to choose between the first option of feeding on “narrow strips of leaf material removed between veins” or “other type of feeding damage or leaf dehydration.” The first option would identify the suspect as Public Enemy No. 1 in rice farming, the notorious rice water weevil, or the lesser-known rice leaf miner. The second choice, “Other type of feeding damage or leaf dehydration,” asks the user to further identify the damage, choosing between broken leaf tips, which could be caused by the Southern green stinkbug, or dehydrated leaf tips, which is probably the work of aphids. “At the final step, you will see a picture of the arthropod and some information about scouting and management,” Hummel said. The guide also has links to videos that show how scouting should be done for rice water weevils and colaspis, a small beetle. Bruce Schultz Photo by Bruce Schultz
Natalie Hummel, extension rice entomologist, shows an example of a rice insect pest, the colaspis beetle.