Georgia’s wheat and grain farmers have one more thing to
worry about. Cereal leaf
beetles are moving across the state.
These little beetles eat the leaves in small grains and
can eat about 15 percent of the
crop yield. Fortunately for Georgia farmers, it’s not that
bad yet.
“We first found cereal leaf beetles north of Rome in
1989. And in that area, it’s
causing problems,” said David
Buntin, a University of
Georgia entomologist at the Georgia Experiment
Station in Griffin.
“Now we’re finding them across the state. And as the
populations grow, they’re
causing more damage.”
Buntin said the beetles are moving at about 50 miles a
year across Georgia. Once
they’re spotted, it takes five to six years for the numbers
to increase to the point of
causing substantial damage.
“Within another 10 years, cereal leaf beetles will be
pretty much everywhere in
the state at levels where, if you’re growing wheat, it’s
something you’ll have to look out
for,” Buntin said.
Cereal leaf beetles came into the United States from
Europe in the early 1960s. They
were first introduced in the Great Lakes area. The beetles
eat almost any small grain,
including wheat, oats and barley. Their feeding damages the
leaves and cuts yields. Adult
beetles will also feed on corn leaves. But they don’t
usually hurt corn yields.
“Wheat is a marginal-profit crop here,” Buntin said. “And
this is one
more pest farmers have to scout for and treat.” Georgia
farmers can grow wheat in
rotation with summer crops like soybeans.
Most of the wheat grown in Georgia is in counties along a
line from just south of
Augusta, through Perry, Americus and into the southwest
corner of the state. To date,
Georgia farmers report 84 percent of their wheat is in fair
or better condition.
In 1997, Georgia farmers grew 15.8 million bushels of
wheat. Its value was a little
more than $50 million.
Scientists with the UGA College of Agricultural and
Environmental Sciences have found ways to control the
insects in Georgia grain fields.
Dewey Lee, a UGA
extension small-grains scientist
in Tifton, said, “We can successfully treat for these
beetles. They’re generally a
problem at the same time aphids and stinkbugs are, so
farmers can scout and treat for all
three with a minimal added cost.”
Buntin is studying how natural enemies of the beetle can
help control the populations
and the damage they cause. Although birds usually provide
some control, the leaf beetles
place their own feces on their backs, and birds don’t like
the taste.
Researchers in the Great Lakes area have used parasites
to infest and decrease cereal
leaf beetle populations.
Buntin and other Southeastern scientists are working to
learn if the parasites can live
in this region and control cereal leaf beetles. If they can,
farmers may soon rely on them
and decrease their pesticide use.
