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Sesame that survived Hurricane Hanna may require treatment for mirids and sesame leafrollers.

Shelley E. Huguley, Editor

August 26, 2020

Hurricane Hanna wreaked havoc on Lower Rio Grande Valley's (LRGV) late-planted sesame crops, destroying 70% to 80% of the crop in some fields, reports IPM Agent Danielle Sekula, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, in her recent Pest Cast newsletter. Sesame acres that survived are beginning to bloom and pests such as mirid and sesame leafrollers, if gone untreated, can threaten plant health. 

"The big one for me is mirids. They're plant bugs," Sekula said in a recent facetime interview with Farm Press. "What I saw in a lot of the sesame that's later planted near Hargill, Raymondville, those areas, is there are a lot of mirids out there. They like to feed on whiteflies but I'm not seeing whiteflies. So, when they don't have whiteflies, they'll eat on the sesame plant."

Watch this video to learn more about these sesame pests and treatments. 

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About the Author(s)

Shelley E. Huguley

Editor, Southwest Farm Press

Shelley Huguley has been involved in agriculture for the last 25 years. She began her career in agricultural communications at the Texas Forest Service West Texas Nursery in Lubbock, where she developed and produced the Windbreak Quarterly, a newspaper about windbreak trees and their benefit to wildlife, production agriculture and livestock operations. While with the Forest Service she also served as an information officer and team leader on fires during the 1998 fire season and later produced the Firebrands newsletter that was distributed quarterly throughout Texas to Volunteer Fire Departments. Her most personal involvement in agriculture also came in 1998, when she married the love of her life and cotton farmer Preston Huguley of Olton, Texas. As a farmwife, she knows first-hand the ups and downs of farming, the endless decisions made each season based on “if” it rains, “if” the drought continues, “if” the market holds. She is the bookkeeper for their family farming operation and cherishes moments on the farm such as taking harvest meals to the field or starting a sprinkler in the summer with the whole family lending a hand. Shelley has also freelanced for agricultural companies such as Olton CO-OP Gin, producing the newsletter Cotton Connections while also designing marketing materials to promote the gin. She has published articles in agricultural publications such as Southwest Farm Press while also volunteering her marketing and writing skills to non-profit organizations such as Refuge Services, an equine-assisted therapy group in Lubbock. She and her husband reside in Olton with their three children Breely, Brennon and HalleeKate.

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