By Clint Thompson
The lingering dry spell felt this summer has exacerbated the fall armyworm damage being observed in hay fields.
Lisa Baxter, University of Georgia State Forage Extension Specialist, discussed the damage farmers are experiencing, not just in Georgia, but across the Southeast.
“Fall armyworms can completely decimate a field overnight. Unfortunately, the better quality forage you have and the better forage manager you are, the more the fall armyworm will like your crop,” Baxter said. “Over the last week to 10 days, I’m getting five to 10 reports a day through calls, texts, emails, social media posts and so on. I thought it was fairly confined to Georgia until I started noticing my colleagues in South Carolina, North Carolina and Alabama quickly sharing our content on social media. It seems the Coastal Plains area in those states are already being hit pretty hard, and they’re just moving inland.”
Problem Made Worse
Until recently, much of the Southeast had been in a prolonged drought. Some areas in Georgia and Alabama were observing severe and extreme dry conditions. That has made the problem worse and forced producers to make quicker decisions.
“Our threshold for treatment drops dramatically when we’re trying to save every blade of grass we can. Our typical textbook value is three per square foot. If you see three worms per square foot, you’ve got to go do something,” Baxter said. “Right now, we don’t have that luxury of time to get back out there. We want to make sure we’re saving as much of the grass as possible to get it into a bale for this winter.
“We’re not feeling the full effects of insect damage and drought right now. We tend to feel that effect, especially when they’re coupled together like this, as we get into early fall and then into winter. Especially if we stay dry and can not get winter grazing planted, that puts another level of stress on our already limited hay stocks that we have.”
Management Options
Baxter stresses that management options also hinge on how big the worms have grown into.
“A lot of the pictures that I am receiving of fall armyworms, the worms are already an inch and a half to two inches long. At that point we do not have an insecticide option. You have to get out there and cut as quickly as possible,” Baxter said. “If someone does have armyworms that are less than three quarters of an inch long and want to spray, the next question comes, how long of residual activity are they looking for? There’s quite a few that are available that give you less than seven days residual that are pretty cheap. As you would imagine, the more residual you get, the more that price starts to increase.”