Changes are afoot!

Tobacco hornworm larva coated with Cotesia congregata cocoons.

Observant readers may have noticed that NC Small Fruit, Specialty Crop, & Tobacco IPM is now NC Small Fruit & Specialty Crop IPM.  As of today, new posts on tobacco integrated pest managment will move to Dominic Reisig's new blog, NC Crops.  When Dominic began NC Crops a few weeks ago, I asked him if he thought there was room there for tobacco IPM information as well, and he graciously invited me on over.

I love working on tobacco, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, grapes, hops, and any other new speciality crops that the growers of North Carolina decide to throw at me! However, I realize that the audiences for information on all of these crops do not always overlap.  Moving tobacco IPM info to NC Crops will allow me to focus on berries and specialty crops here and better serve my tobacco audience there.

The tobacco posts from this blog will continue to be archived and accessible here at NC Small Fruit & Specialty Crop IPM.

I hope to see the tobacco crew and any other interested readers over at NC Crops!

Southside Farms on NC Weekend

Southside Farms grows strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, and much more in eastern NC.  UNC TV's NC Weekend visited Shawn & Tracey Harding and highlighted their thriving you-pick operation.  The segment at Southside Farms starts at 6:22.

Watch the full episode. See more NC Weekend.

Our lab has a connection to Southside Farms--Mandi Harding, our resident hops insect expert, is Shawn & Tracey's daughter, and has picked her share of fruit and veggies at the farm!  Now Mandi track the diversity and seasonal biology of potential insect pests of hops in North Carolina.

A visit to Imladris Farm from Carolina Epicurean

Carolina Epicurean posted a nice article about a recent visit to Imladris Farm, an organic berry and animal farm in Buncombe County run by Walter & Wendy Harrill and their family.  One of the production practices highlighted is spotted wing drososphila (SWD) monitoring, complete with a photo of one of Walt's traps.

Walt and I began corresponding about SWD and what it's arrival in NC could mean for organic berry growers last year, and it's great to see that he's putting monitoring and management strategies into practice.  See here to learn how to monitor SWD at your farm or home.

More information
Talk to a farmer: Walter Harrill, Imladris Farm - Carolina Epicurean
Imladris Farm
Do it yourself - spotted wing drosophila monitoring

New blog: NC Crops

Field crop entomologist, Dominic Reisig, has just started a new blog at NC Crops.  Of interest to readers of our blog are recent posts on kudzu bug distribution in North Carolina (kudzu bug is yet another invasive pest, like spotted wing drosophila, moving through NC and the southeast) and light trap captures of tobacco budworm and corn earworm moths.  Dominic has been tracking the frequency of pyrethroid resistance in light trap captured moths, which is relevant to our pest management strategy for tobacco budworm in tobacco.  At the last trap check, 11% of the moths captured were resistant to pyrethroids.

More information
NC Crops

NC Cooperative Extension on You Tube - Extension is...

NC Cooperative Extension has posted several videos on their YouTube channel addressing the theme "Extension is..." in three words. My favorite video so far is from Randolph County where extension is "doing applied research", including studying the seasonal biology of spotted wing drosophila (SWD) as part of the SWD volunteer monitoring network.

More information

NC Cooperative Extension YouTube Channel

Global Change Forum - June 30th

The NC State University Small Fruit, Specialty Crop, and Tobacco Entomology program will be presenting as part of the Global Change Forum, a first of its kind meeting of scientists at the NC Natural Science Museum.  We will be presenting on the impact & importance of spotted wing drosophila, pollination biology, and more!  See here for more information on this exciting event.

More information
Global Change Forum

Spotted wing drosophila coverage in local media

Female SWD on a ripe red raspberry.  Photo: HJB

Two local media sources have stories on spotted wing drosophila and our recent detections. I spoke with the News & Observer in Raleigh and North Carolina Public Radio yesterday, and both cover SWD in stories today.

This is part of an effort to make as many growers and gardeners aware of SWD before next year's growing season so that, together, we can develop management strategies and determine the extent of the fly's spread though North Carolina and the east coast.

Update
SWD was also featured in the Triad Business Journal, the Richmond County Daily Journal, and PhysOrg.com.

More information
Asian fruit fly may plague state next year - Food - NewsObserver.com
NC Farmers Face New Foe - North Carolina Public Radio
Invasive Fruit Flies Found in NC - Triad Business Journal 
Heat May Have Helped Growers - Richmond County Journal
Invasive Fruit Flies Found in NC - PhysOrg.com
NC Small Fruits, Specialty Crop, and Tobacco IPM - SWD Posts

SWD article in Growing Magazine

OSU Entomologist Amy Dreves checks a monitoring trap in an Oregon strawberry grower’s high tunnel crop for SWD.
Photo by Lynn Ketchum, OSU EESC.

An article highlighting SWD motoring and management efforts throughout the US has just been published in Growing, a magazine for fruit and vegetable growers. Our monitoring effort is highlighted. When the article was written, there were no SWD captures in SC, NC, or VA. What a difference a few weeks make! We now have trap captures in 2 locations (see trapping data here). More on these captures later this week.

Northern Fruit Growers on Watch