Evaluation of Economic Injury Levels and Chemical Control Recommendations for Rice Stink Bug (Oebalus Pugnax) in Louisiana
Experiments were carried out from 2010 to 2013 to investigate multiple aspects of rice stink bug (RSB) integrated pest management (IPM): insecticide recommendations, sampling efficiency, treatment thresholds, farmer practices, and improved educational tools. The first objective of this research was to compare the efficacies of currently used insecticides with that of a new product from the neonicotinoid class of insecticides. Experiments were carried out in the laboratory, small field plots, and commercial fields across Louisiana. Results from efficacy trials showed that the neonicotinoid was comparable to pyrethroid products used most by rice producers in Louisiana. Conversely, in separate experiments the organophosphate malathion was shown to be highly ineffective in small plot tests. Glass-vial bioassays showed elevated levels of pyrethroid tolerance in a Texas RSB population. The second objective was to evaluate the density-damage relationship for rice stink bugs feeding in rice. The efficiency of sweep-net sampling was first determined using a mark-recapture study in small plots to establish the necessary density for infesting caged rice plots. Cage studies were carried out in 2010-2012, and RSB were infested at levels estimated to be 1 to 20 times the current economic thresholds. No significant relationships among rice stink bug densities and measures of damage were seen. Objective three was to assess the adoption of recommended IPM practices by rice-industry professionals in southern rice producing states and create original internet-based delivery of extension recommendations for RSB management. Rice producers in Louisiana and Texas were shown to prefer the use of pyrethroid insecticides above all other labeled products for RSB control. Growers in Texas averaged more applications of pyrethroids than respondents in Arkansas and Louisiana. Seed treatments to combat rice water weevils have been adopted rapidly in all states surveyed.
threshold, farmer survey, rice stink bug, neonicotinoid
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