“WHAT’S HAPPENING?”

The University of Tennessee/Agricultural Extension Service

Entomology & Plant Pathology - EPP #60

July 21, 2006

USDA OFFERS GUIDE TO HELP AGRICULTURAL PRODUCERS PROTECT THE U.S. FOOD SUPPLY

By Darrell Hensley

The U.S. Department of Agriculture released a guide entitled "Pre-Harvest Security Guidelines and Checklist 2006" to help agricultural producers enhance security at the farm level. These practical measures help to protect against natural disasters, as well as the unintentional or intentional introduction of plant or animal diseases.

"We work on many fronts to ensure that our nation continues to provide the safest food supply in the world," said Agriculture Deputy Secretary Chuck Conner. "While there is no one-size-fits-all approach to protecting agriculture, recommendations in this guide can be beneficial to a variety of types and sizes of agricultural operations."

Food and agriculture biosecurity is an important component of USDA's mission. Improving awareness through enhanced outreach and communications is a key element of USDA's homeland security efforts. The voluntary guidelines and checklists were developed based upon recommendations made by producers throughout the United States. Guidelines have been developed for general agriculture; dairy; crops; cattle and poultry security.

This guide is the latest in a series of materials produced by USDA to bolster food and agriculture security. USDA continues to work closely with its federal, state and local government partners as well as industry stakeholders to develop sector-wide guidelines. For instance, guidance has been issued by USDA for food processors and distributors, and for agricultural transporters in coordination with the trucking industry.

Agriculture and food account for 13 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product, 18 percent of its employment and $140 billion in revenue. USDA continues to work with its federal, state, local partners as well as industry in protecting the nation's agriculture and food production, from threats such as natural disasters and either the naturally occurring, intentional or unintentional introduction of diseases and pathogens as they do not respect geographic borders. The interconnected global food system contributes to our nation's economic strength by improving production and marketing efficiency and providing timely responses to consumer needs.

USDA's local Farm Service Agency Service Centers are distributing the "Pre-Harvest Security Guidelines and Checklist 2006" to agricultural producers throughout the country.

Source: http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usdahome?contentidonly=true&contentid=2006/07/0245.xml

The downloadable guidelines are available at: http://www.usda.gov/documents/PreHarvestSecurity_final.pdf

USDA Release No. 0245.06

Quadris Fungicide Use in Tobacco Production

by Darrell Hensley

Quadris fungicide (azoxystrobin) recently received a full federal label for use in Tobacco Production. Earlier this season, several select counties in Tennessee did have a SLN for the use of Quadris in Tobacco production. However, now Quadris is labeled for use in tobacco production for control of blue mold, frog-eye leafspot and target spot. Quadris should not be applied as a curative and should be applied prior to the onset of blue mold. If blue mold is present in the field, initiate applications with other control products. Quadris may be applied in the formulation rate range of 6 to 12 floz or 0.1 to 0.2 lbs active ingredient per acre. For Tobacco production, do not apply more than 0.52 lbs active ingredient per acre per season. Do not mix with Thiodan (endosulfan containing products). Tank mixing Quadris with insecticides formulated as ECs or containing high amounts of solvents, may cause some crop injury. Quadris may be applied up to the day of harvest. Quadris may enhance weather flecking on the leaves of certain tobacco types. This does not affect yield or quality. Please follow the label for resistance management when using this product. Also, the label has changed for use in several other crops.

Plum Pox Virus (PPV) confirmed in New York

by Darrell Hensley

For the first time in New York State (NYS), the Plum Pox Virus (PPV) was detected by the Cornell University Plant Disease Diagnostic Clinic in a sample of two Plum (Prunus sp.) trees while performing laboratory testing for the NYS Department of Agriculture & Market's National Survey. The trees were located in Niagara County, NY. The trees and surrounding area were re-sampled immediately. Eight samples were collected from the originally positive trees and 53 samples were collected from the surrounding area. Seven of the eight samples from the original trees tested positive. All the surrounding area samples tested negative, no virus found. All samples were tested using Enzyme-linked Immuno Sorbent Assay (ELISA) and real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) validated and approved testing methods. On July 10, 2007, they received confirmation of the finding from the USDA-APHIS-PPQ-CPHST laboratory in Beltsville, MD. The USDA has determined the strain to be "D" which is the strain found in Canada and Pennsylvania.

This year's survey effort will increase to include an additional 20,000 samples to the originally planned 10,000 samples already in process. A one mile area around the positive find will be surveyed and all host trees sampled and sent to the Cornell laboratory. An eradication effort is in the planning stages.

Plum Pox, also known as Sharka, is a viral disease of stone fruit trees such as plum, peach, and apricot. It has been a devastating disease in Europe since the early 1900s, where it was first reported in Bulgaria, then spread throughout Europe. In recent years the disease has spread to the Americas, first being found in Chile in 1992, in the orchards of Adams County, Pennsylvania, in 1999, and in Ontario and Nova Scotia, Canada in 2000. The disease remains localized at this time and it is hoped that it will be contained and eradicated before it has a chance to spread to the other parts of the North American continent.

Source: Karen Snover-Clift http://plantclinic.cornell.edu/

The Dog Days of Summer are Right for Insects

by Frank A. Hale

While the hot weather might be getting you down, many insect species are at their peak of activity. Defoliators such as bagworms, fall webworms, and Japanese beetles are munching away. Foliar sprays of Sevin and pyrethroid insecticides can be applied now for control of these pests.

Cicada killer wasps are stinging and paralyzing dog-day cicadas and taking them to an underground nest. If a male egg is to be laid, the nest is provisioned with one cicada. If the egg will produce a female wasp, two or three cicadas are put in the burrow. Apparently, the larger female wasps require more food to develop. Since these wasps seldom sting, control is usually not warranted. Sevin or deltamethrin (DeltaDust) can be applied to the tunnel entrance if control is needed.

Another large and unusual insect reported at this time of year is the dobsonfly. Dobsonflies are the winged adults of the aquatic larva which is called a hellgrammite. Hellgrammites are found in streams under rocks. They have a pair of hooked prolegs at the tail end, no terminal filament, and eight pair of lateral filaments on the abdomen. If they sound like good fish bait, they certainly are favored by fishermen. Be careful handling them because they can bite. The dobsonfly adults are being seen fluttering about in large numbers in the vicinity of streams. The male (3.5 inches long) has a pair of large sickle-shaped mandibles that cross near the tips while the female (3 inches long) has much shorter mandibles. The wings have many veins (net-like) and the overall color is gray.

Eastern Hercules beetle adults can be found at night attracted to bright lights in parking lots. These large green beetles (male 2 inches, female 1.75 inches) with black spots are harmless. The adult male has a pair of large black pronotal horns and two smaller spines that point forward. The males use the larger horns to grip and wrestle with competing males when in search of the female. The grubs are found in decomposing stumps and look like giant C-shaped white grubs..

Grasshoppers have also been reported in West Tennessee moving into landscapes. Sprays of carbaryl (Sevin) and malathion can be used on many garden crops while pyrethroid insecticides such as cyfluthrin (Tempo, Bayer Advanced Powerforce Multi-Insect Killer), bifenthrin (Talstar), deltamethrin (DeltaGard), permethrin (Astro, Permethrin), and lambda-cyhalothrin (Scimitar) can be used to protect lawns and many ornamentals. Baits can be made by combining Sevin XLR Plus (see label) with a cereal grain substrate (cereal grains or their by-products, such as flaky wheat bran, rolled wheat, rolled oats and/or barley or oat millings) to make a carbaryl bait containing 2 to 10 percent active carbaryl. These carbaryl baits are most effective when spread over mowed or barren areas between the crop or landscape being protected and the hatching beds (grassy ditchbanks, roadsides, fence rows etc). See the recently updated SP290-X, Grasshoppers, for more information on grasshoppers and their control.

Tumid Spider Mites

by Frank A. Hale

The hot, dry weather is perfect for the development of warm season spider mites. Twospotted spider mites and tumid spider mites are often found infesting the same plants this time of year. The tumid spider mite is a reddish color, especially as an adult. The twospotted spider mites are a lighter tan color and they have the two dark spots on the body. We have seen extensive webbing on bean plants and have had a report of a 12 acre tomato field in East Tennessee being seriously infested and covered with so much webbing that it can be seen from a hundred yards away. It is important that fields be scouted and miticide applications be made well before mite populations build to these damaging levels, especially when the weather is so ideal for mite development.

Imported Fire Ant (IFA) Inspection of Hay at 2006 Fairs

by Karen Vail, Pat Parkman, Tahir Rashid and Beth Long

We wanted to remind you that hay is a regulated item in the imported fire ant quarantine. If you are bringing hay to a county or other fair, and the hay is from a quarantined county, it must be inspected, determined to be free of IFA and accompanied by a permit, prior to movement. Hay must have been stored off the ground to be shipped. If hay was stacked, as long as it was not the bottom tier of hay, it would be considered as stacked off the ground. Gray Haun, Tennessee Department of Agriculture (TDA) Plant Certification Section Administrator, is making an exception to the inspection process with regards to the hay to accompany animals at county fairs. He is allowing county Extension agents to inspect this, and only this, hay and sign the permit. Gray suggests that you use the date and add one number starting with 1 for the permit number. For example, I would use 90806-1 for the first permit I was to sign on September 8th; the second permit number assigned that day would be 90806-2, etc. After your fair season is completed, Gray would like you to send him the number of permits that you completed. Gray Haun can be reached at Walker.Haun@state.tn.us, by phone at (615)-837-5338, or by fax at (615)-837-5246.

The permit, new quarantine map and directions will be e-mailed to Extension agents with 4H and adult agriculture responsibilities. Because all of the businesses that will be affected by the quarantine may not yet have been notified by TDA and because the new quarantine has not been listed in the official Federal Register, we have not posted these to our web site yet. These will also be attached to the e-mail but are not to be distributed until the official federal announcement is made.

The TN IFA quarantine has been expanded this year to 49 counties including parts of 8 new counties –Anderson, Davidson, Gibson, Knox, Rutherford, Tipton, Van Buren, and Williamson and modifications have been made to many others. The new quarantine will eventually be listed under Updates, Quarantine and Maps on the left scroll bar of the UT Extension Imported Fire Ants in Tennessee web site (http://fireants.utk.edu).

More information on regulations pertaining to imported fire ants can be found at the Tennessee Department of Agriculture's Imported Fire Ants web site (http://www.state.tn.us/agriculture/regulate/plants/ifa.html):

$Tennessee Imported Fire Ant Quarantine Rule Tennessee Chapter 0080-6-19 (http://www.state.tn.us/sos/rules/0080/0080-06/0080-06-19.pdf)

$Materials Regulated By the Imported Fire Ant Quarantine

$Requirements for Growers Concerning the Imported Fire Ant Quarantine

$Transportation of Regulated Items From Quarantined To Non-quarantined Areas

$IFA Hay Advisory (http://www.state.tn.us/agriculture/regulate/plants/ifa99.pdf) (Note the list of quarantined counties is outdated.)

$Consequences of Breaking the Imported Fire Ant Quarantine

$What Can I Do If I Buy Products Infested With Imported Fire Ants?

OTHER UT NEWSLETTERS WITH PEST MANAGEMENT INFORMATION

Fruit Pest News

http://web.utk.edu/~extepp/fpn/fpn.htm

Tennessee Crop and Pest Management Newsletter

http://www.utextension.utk.edu/fieldCrops/cotton/cotton_insects/ipmnewsletters.htm

This and other "What's Happening" issues can be found at http://web.utk.edu/~extepp/whatshap.htm

Precautionary Statement

To protect people and the environment, pesticides should be used safely. This is everyone’s responsibility, especially the user. Read and follow label directions carefully before you buy, mix, apply, store or dispose of a pesticide. According to laws regulating pesticides, they must be used only as directed by the label.

Disclaimer

This publication contains pesticide recommendations that are subject to change at any time. The recommendations in this publication are provided only as a guide. It is always the pesticide applicator's responsibility, by law, to read and follow all current label directions for the specific pesticide being used. The label always takes precedence over the recommendations found in this publication.

Use of trade or brand names in this publication is for clarity and information; it does not imply approval of the product to the exclusion of others that may be of similar, suitable composition, nor does it guarantee or warrant the standard of the product. The author(s), the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture and University of Tennessee Extension assume no liability resulting from the use of these recommendations.

Visit the UT Extension Web site at http://www.utextension.utk.edu

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