University alerts corn earworm outbreak in Brazilian state‏

The Pest Management Laboratory of the Federal University of Santa Maria in Brazil warns that the state of Rio Grande do Sul may suffer a corn earnworm outbreak within a maximum of 20 days. According to the monitoring of the Lab, the municipalities with the highest incidence of the adult caterpillar (3 to 5 centimeters) are Cruz Alta, Ijuí and Giruá.

 

Entomologist Jerson Carús Guedes said that the pest was detected in Rio Grande do Sul 12 months ago and survived the last mild cold winter in the crops of wheat, oats and barley. The researcher said that at this moment that is indispensable to monitor crops to quantify the number of the pests.

 

According to him, the products application to control the pests whether based on bacteria or viruses must be made from the moment that the farmers identify two or three small larvae (nearly one centimeter) in each square meter. If that control is not done, the infestation will reflect on loss in flowering - a critical period for soybeans which occurs in two months.

 

The president of the Association of Soybean Producers of Rio Grande do Sul, Décio Lopes Teixeira, said that farmers are already preventing the problem. Teixeira said that in the region of Cruz Alta farmers exchange information and images through cell phones.