Browse Plant Pests and Diseases Stories - Page 23

Green industry professionals often find themselves in the field needing immediate access to the latest pest and plant disease information and plant care recommendations, especially when they are caught off guard by destructive pests emerging in their area.

A new insect thought to threaten Georgia's pepper production at the moment poses a greater danger to lantana - a popular landscape plant.

If it were a matter of life over death, most people would munch on a grasshopper. But would you do so purely by choice? University of Georgia student Harman Johar is counting on it.

As the seasons turn, commercial bell pepper growers in the Southeast share a common foe: the sun.

Vegetable gardens and compost piles are usually located in the sunniest part of the landscape. Unfortunately, fire ants like sunshine, too. They often invade compost piles and vegetable gardens seeking food, warmth and moisture.

University of Georgia researcher John Ruberson is looking for natural enemies of the kudzu bug in an effort to fight the pest’s spread across the Southern states. A tiny Asian wasp may be the best option.

Two years ago, the kudzu bug arrived in Georgia and has been aggravating homeowners and feeding on kudzu and soybeans ever since. Now, some of Georgia’s Latin American trading partners are worried that the legume-eating pest may be headed south.

“There is a big spider in our living room!” my wife screamed. As a graduate student in entomology at the University of Georgia, I’m accustomed to dealing with insects. Having just moved to Georgia from India, she is not.

There won't be any lions, tigers or bears, but the University of Georgia’s annual Insect Zoo will let visitors get up close and personal with roaches, crickets and other bugs.

Nature is a system of checks and balances, as is the case between aphids and wasps. Aphids feed on plants; wasps lay eggs inside aphids, killing them and increasing plant production. Some aphids harbor bacterial symbionts, or smaller organisms that live in close association with a host, that provide protection by killing the internally developing wasps. Wasps are able to decipher which aphids are infected and use superparasitism to override the poison.