Rains bring back the spittlebugs

Some people call them cuckoo spits. Others call them froghoppers or devil spits. No matter what you call spittlebugs they make a devil of a mess in landscapes. With the end of the drought, University of Georgia experts say spittlebugs are making a comeback around the state.

“During our drought years, two-lined spittlebugs were not as much of a problem because they need a high-moisture environment for the nymphs to develop in turf,” said Kris Braman, an entomologist with the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences in Griffin, Ga. “We have had better moisture for two years now, so we might expect spittlebugs to make a comeback.”

Gooey mess

Atlanta radio garden show host Walter Reeves says callers began reporting spittlebug sightings in the spring. “Back in May, people were calling about seeing spittlebugs in Leland Cypress trees in big gooey masses,” he said.

The “goo” Reeves’ callers are seeing is spittle the nymphs make to protect themselves from predators and to maintain their preferred moist environment. It’s not the spittle that should cause concern, it’s the adult bugs that will follow that cause the damage.

"The adults have needle-like mouthparts to extract fluids from the plants," said Braman. "They inject a toxin that causes the grass to wither and turn brown. You will notice purplish streaking, browning and dieback on grasses that are repeatedly heavily infested.”

Nymphs are easy to spot. The spittle gives them away. The adults have distinctive markings. They are a quarter-inch long and have black, wedge- or tent-shaped bodies with two red lines across their backs.

“Because their backs are bright scarlet and exposed when the wings are spread, the effect is almost like a laser pointer zooming across the lawn,” said Will Hudson, a CAES entomologist in Tifton, Ga., who reports spittlebug populations are popping up in southwest Georgia, too.

Grass lovers

Spittlebugs prefer centipede, but feed on other warm-season grasses such as bermuda, zoysia and St. Augustine, too. In the Southeast, they also feed on some woody ornamentals, especially holly trees such as ‘Savannah’ Holly, Braman said.

“If hollies have been infested, the new growth will be twisted and deformed and the leaves will have irregular brown blotches,” she said.

But, if the nymph spittle is appearing in trees, don’t blame the two-line spittlebug.

“Spittlebugs appearing in Leland cypress in north Georgia are a different species, not the two-lined spittlebug that infests turfgrasses and attack hollies,” she said. “The nymphs of the two-lined spittlebug species only feed on nonwoody plants like turfgrass. If you see spittle masses in trees, they weren't put there by two-lined spittle-bugs."

Control measures

Braman says the best way to control spittlebugs is to disrupt their environment.

“Dethatching and topdressing can disrupt the high-moisture environment the nymphs need to survive,” she said. “You can treat with labeled pyrethroid insecticides.”

Be vigilant, though. The season isn’t over.

“The first of two generations have become adults now, so they are very visible,” Braman said. 
“However, usually the second generation is bigger than the first. It is starting to get dry where I am unless you happen to be underneath one of those pop up thunderstorms. We could have another big adult emergence from late July through August if there is sufficient moisture to support their development.”



By J Faith Peppers
University of Georgia

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Vidalia Onions struggle through wet Georgia winter

Georgia Vidalia Onion growers are ready for Mother Nature to turn off the tap. Record rainfall has dampened their crop, prevented them from getting into fields to take care of it and put it behind in development, says a University of Georgia onion expert.

Record rainfall swamped Georgia over the past three months and continues to keep things soggy in southeast Georgia, where farmers typically plant each year an estimated 12,000 acres of Georgia’s official vegetable.

“Right now, I’d say the condition of the crop is fair,” said Reid Torrance, UGA Cooperative Extension coordinator in Tattnall County and onion expert. “It’s the wettest I’ve ever seen. We’ve had record rainfall -- three to four times normal -- which has put everyone behind. We just can’t get in the fields. Basically, we’re trying to play catch up at this point.”

Farmers start transplanting onions into fields in November. Conditions were drier then. Onions planted that month had a good head start on the weather, he said. Then the sky opened, dropping 12 inches of rain in December around Tattnall and Toombs counties, where the majority of the crop is planted. Over the past 8 weeks, the region has received close to 20 inches of rain.

The crop is usually planted by the end of the year, he said. But this year, only 80 percent was in the ground by Jan. 1. The rest has trickled in during short dry spells.

Farmers are a month behind in weed management and fertilizer applications. What they’ve been able to do in fields, he said, in many cases, has been washed away.

In a few cases, Torrance has seen entire planting beds washed away, leaving the tiny bulbs once in them piled knee deep at the bottom of fields. In all, an estimated 15 percent of the planted crop is likely already lost.

If there is a silver lining, he said, foliar diseases, up to this point, haven’t been a problem for the crop. Prolonged freezing temperatures in January zapped what foliage had sprouted. So, there is nothing for diseases to attack.

The onions will be ready to hit the market in April, when harvest typically starts. “But whether it’ll be early or late April right now we don’t know,” he said.

Georgia’s climatologist David Stooksbury recently said the wet, cool weather that has blanketed the state this winter will likely continue through spring.

“We still have a lot of season left, and onions are resilient,” Torrance said. “But we’ve got to get a break here soon. Rain is the last thing we need.”

By Brad Haire
University of Georgia

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