Insects-Crop Pests
Many different species of insect pests attack crops. Each of these pests is capable of causing economic yield loss, and some are capable of totally destroying a crop. Knowing when to treat for insect pests in crops is vital to keeping yields high and controlling the costs of agricultural production.
Control insects in cotton, soybeans, corn, grain sorghum, wheat, sweet potatoes, rice, peanuts, and pastures with the following information produced by MSU Extension.
Publications
News
The Mississippi State University Extension Service will offer free testing for a significant crop pest through Aug. 30, 2019.
Grain sorghum has never been a major agricultural commodity in Mississippi, but it has seen better days: For two years in a row, acreage of the crop has been less than one-tenth of its annual average.
Mississippi has an abundance of bugs, especially in the warmer months. We are all familiar with mosquitoes, bumblebees, and house flies. But I bet there are bugs around your house and yard that you can’t identify. (Photo by Blake Layton)
Two half-day training sessions next month will provide expertise on pest and disease control on small farms.
STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Cotton will always have challenges, but few of them will ever compare to the boll weevils that thrived in Mississippi from 1904 until 2009.
“It is nearly impossible for this younger generation of consultants, scouts and growers to understand how hard boll weevils were to control and how much boll weevil control hurt beneficial insects and complicated cotton management,” said Will McCarty, who served as the Mississippi State University Extension Service cotton specialist during “the boll weevil wars.”
Success Stories
When Mississippi achieved statehood in 1817, its cotton industry was only beginning to take off. By 1917, boll weevils were devastating the state’s cotton crop and its economy.
