Michael Gray Email

This author has written 68 articles

Don’t Neglect to Scout for Alfalfa Weevils in the Rush to Plant Corn

  • May 17, 2013

On May 15, I scouted a stand of alfalfa in Champaign County and found numerous third and fourth instar alfalfa weevil larvae by using a sweep net.  By May 16, 461 degree days (base 48ºF) had accumulated since January 1, 2013 for Champaign. The average degree-day accumulation by this date for the preceding 11-year period is 510. So, we are just slightly behind this long-term average. Although larvae were numerous, I did not detect significant defoliation.…

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Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs Breaking Winter Dormancy

  • May 10, 2013

On May 9, Robert Bellm, University of Illinois Extension Commercial Agriculture Educator, Brownstown Research and Education Center, found a brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB) in Madison County, Illinois (Figures 1 and 2). As we move further into spring, more reports of these sightings will begin to surface across the state. BMSB adults are now beginning to break their winter dormancy and move outside of their shelters (sheds, barns, homes, or other protected sites).
 
This stink bug species was first confirmed in Illinois during 2010 in Cook County.…

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New Report on Economic and Environmental Impacts of Transgenic Crops Available

  • May 7, 2013

A new peer-reviewed work has been published (April 2013) that outlines some significant global economic and environmental benefits of transgenic crops. The paper is titled — GM crops: global socio-economic and environmental impacts 1996-2011. The authors of the paper are Graham Brookes and Peter Barfoot, with PG Economics Ltd, Dorchester, United Kingdom. Provided are key findings that I gleaned from the report, some, are direct quotes from this document. As an agricultural entomologist who has conducted western corn rootworm research for many years,…

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Pyramided Bt Cotton and Factors Leading to Potential Compromised Longevity: Cautionary Findings for Bt Corn and Western Corn Rootworm?

  • April 9, 2013

In late March 2013, an article was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) titled “Potential shortfall of pyramided transgenic cotton for insect resistance management.” The authors of the paper were as follows: Thierry Brévault, Shannon Heuberger, Min Zhang, Christa Ellers-Kirk, Xinzhi Ni, Luke Masson, Xianchiun Li, Bruce E. Tabashnik, and Yves Carrière. The scientists pointed out in their introduction that the first generation of Bt cotton plants,…

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Soil Insecticide Use on Bt Corn Expected to Increase this Spring Across Much of Illinois

  • March 28, 2013

What a difference a year can make. Many of us will recall the record-breaking warm temperatures of last March across the Corn Belt of the United States. Those temperatures fueled a rush towards planting in April and the earliest emergence of western corn rootworm adults that I have witnessed. On June 7, 2012, I reported that severe rootworm injury had already occurred in a cornfield located in Cass County along with plentiful adults that were causing considerable injury to the corn leaves.…

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