By Pat Porter, Texas AgriLife Extension
Joel Webb, EA-IPM Runnels and Tom Green counties, today (9/2) has identified sugarcane aphids in the San Angelo area. This is the nearest confirmed growing season report of the sugarcane aphid to the High Plains area.
The aphid was confirmed as overwintering right here in Hale County and was found on native Johnson grass in Lubbock, Hale, & Swisher Counties earlier this spring, but since that time has fallen off the ‘radar’ with no more colonies found in our area.
We assume healthy populations of predators are to credit for the disappearance of the aphid from our area, but we cannot be certain. With no native sugarcane aphids to monitor, we have been and will be watching the migration of the aphid from the south while anticipating and bracing for their arrival on the High Plains.
In the Valley, Coastal Bend, and Hill Country, the aphid has been an economic pest this year, but reduced in population compared to recent seasons.
By Pat Porter, Texas AgriLife Extension
Tom Guthrie, County Extension Agent Ag, in Mills County is reporting building populations of sugarcane aphid on sorghum in Mills County. Some fields have exceeded the economic threshold. He has credible reports of sugarcane aphids in Comanche and Hamilton counties.
Additionally, a private consultant has reported finding aphids in Nolan, Fisher and Jones counties at treatable levels.
By Ed Bynum, Texas AgriLife Extension
I received a call this morning from a County Extension Agent from Lipscomb County in the Texas Panhandle. He had seen on Facebook that sugarcane aphids were found near Clinton, OK. As a crow flies this about 175 miles east of Amarillo, TX on interstate 40.
I contacted Dr. Tom Royer, Oklahoma State University entomologist, to see if this could be confirmed. He stated that low numbers of sugarcane aphids were beginning to be found in several Oklahoma counties.
So, this is just another report of an increase in sugarcane aphid activity.
