Images from the pecan world
A father once told his son that a person should never miss an opportunity to keep their mouth shut. Sage advice I should consider more often, and I’ll add to it—one should keep their eyes and ears open. Whether we realize it or not, each of us uses a somewhat unique learning style, usually relying...
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Concepts of pecan pest management
It would be convenient to open a 2022 pecan pest management calendar tailored for you, detailing what needs to be applied and the date to apply for each pest that crosses your path this year. We know that certain pests will need to be managed during the year and whether this is likely to be...
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Beetles that feed on pecan roots
We are all familiar with the concept that the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Managing insects attacking pecan is no different considering that the same squeaky pests get the proverbial grease. Pecan foliage laden with aphid honeydew and chlorotic spots elicited by the black pecan aphid cannot be ignored nor can those pecan kernels laid...
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Pecan weevils’ local movement in an orchard
Pecan weevils are sustained solely by the energy derived from their host, i.e., pecan and hickory nuts, so we should expect them to be experts in finding nuts. To begin to find nuts, adult weevils must move to the host tree canopy (after emerging from the soil) by flying or crawling. Those that take flight...
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Factors affecting pest abundance in the orchard
Without pest management in a pecan orchard, growers sacrifice nut yield and quality. Indeed, it would be a rare season if a pecan orchard did not need input for pest management and nut harvest in that orchard met expectations for commercial production. And this is why year after year, the same insect pest species that...
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Overwintering Pecan Pests: Where are they now?
A cold winter day in a leafless pecan orchard rarely conjures images of insects and all the damage they can do to pecans. But with the days flying by and spring almost here, the insects will be back. At least it seems that way, even though most never left. The majority of the pecan pests...
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The Nut Curculio: A Lesser Known Pecan Pest
Broad knowledge of the arthropod pests attacking pecans enhances one’s pest management in pecan orchards. When the focus is on the major pests we are familiar with, we miss detecting signs and symptoms of minor pests. Even though minor pests cause little economic injury to the tree or crop, occasionally their numbers and subsequent damage...
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Monitoring Stink Bugs, an Annual Pecan Pest
Stink bugs are serious, annual pests of pecan. Their feeding on developing nuts before shell hardening leads to “black pit” of the embryo and nut abortion. After the shell hardens, damaged nuts remain on the tree and are harvested. Stink bug feeding injury on nuts with hardened shells and mature kernels usually is indicated by...
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Hickory Shuckworm: An Almost Season-long Pest of Pecan
Despite it being a major pest of pecan, the hickory shuckworm has had less research done on it in the U.S. over the last 20 years than other major pests, including the pecan weevil, aphids, pecan nut casebearer, and stink bugs. Bill Ree, a retired Texas A&M AgriLife IPM specialist, made a similar comment five...
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Obscure Scale: A Stealthy Pest of Pecan
A handful of pest species cause most economic injury to pecan year after year. Pests attacking the developing nut include the stink bug complex, pecan weevil, hickory shuckworm, and pecan nut casebearer, while the aphid complex and mites attack the foliage. Occasionally, other pest species may cause sporadic injury, but their activity is usually limited...
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Lady Beetles, Pecan Orchards, and Ground Covers
Pecan aphids have many natural enemies. Some are rarely seen and may not be recognized for the good they do against pecan aphids. Although important, these natural enemies will be saved to write about later. Instead, this article focuses on the well-known and commonly seen lady beetles whose striking colors cannot help but attract attention....
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Pecan Aphids, Part III: A Different Approach to Managing the Black Pecan Aphid
The first and second articles in this series on pecan aphids focused on the distribution of the three aphid species (blackmargined aphid, yellow pecan aphid, and black pecan aphid) on pecan foliage and their feeding biology. An emphasis was placed on how the black pecan aphid conditions foliage at feeding sites by eliciting chlorotic zones,...
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Pecan Aphids, Part II: Feeding Biology
In the first of this three-part series on the pecan-feeding aphids (March 2019), I covered how different aphid species distribute on pecan foliage. At the end of that article, we questioned why nymphs of the blackmargined pecan aphid and yellow pecan aphid favor the underside of the pecan leaf, but a proportion of black pecan...
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Pecan Aphids, Part I: Distribution on Pecan Leaves
This article is the first of a three-part series examining the pecan-feeding aphids, especially the black pecan aphid. This first part concerns the general biology of the pecan aphids and their distribution on pecan leaves. In the second part, the emphasis will shift to the black pecan aphid with a discussion of feeding biology, and...
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