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Old June 24, 2019   #1
GoDawgs
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Default Kudzu Bug Alert

Today I found the first kudzu bug of the season. Does anyone else have these things? Haven't seen any in two or three years. If you live in Georgia (where they first appeared in 2009), the Carolinas or Alabama, you may be susceptible. They are a tad smaller than 1/4" and often are a major pest in soybean fields as well as kudzu patches. Plants are harmed as these things suck the juices out of them.



Kudzu bugs first hit my garden in 2010 when they encrusted the stems of the fig bush, the pole beans and a dwarf wisteria.



I tried as best as I could to scrape them into a cup of soapy water but they hung around for about a week. Back then I had never seen them before and had to have the extension guy ID it. Since then I've seen the odd bug now and then but never in the numbers that were here in '10. Perhaps growers have been able to keep the population in check. I sure checked the wisteria and fig this morning and they're bug free, thank goodness.

The link posted below lists on the Grower tab a map of where they have been spotted as well as a list of what chemicals you can use against them, the least harmful being Sevin. Next time (and I hope there won't be one) I'll make up a bigger soap water cup!

https://www.kudzubug.org/grower/
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Old June 25, 2019   #2
Worth1
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Good lord.
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Old June 25, 2019   #3
brownrexx
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Euu. I sure am glad that we don't have them!
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Old June 25, 2019   #4
Goodloe
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Have never seen them here...did they get imported from somewhere else? It'd be great if they could be trained to feed only on kudzu, tho....
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Old June 25, 2019   #5
ScottinAtlanta
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Have never seen them in Atlanta.
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Old June 26, 2019   #6
GoDawgs
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Goodloe View Post
Have never seen them here...did they get imported from somewhere else? It'd be great if they could be trained to feed only on kudzu, tho....
They came from Japan, arriving how other junk arrives here in imported whatevers. They showed up in NE Georgia in 2009 and for the next couple of years they expanded their range. They were destroying a lot of soybean crops. Kudzu is in the same family and sub family as soybeans but they belong to different genera. I was thinking that the ag folks finally figured out how to deal with them as a reason they've been declining. Tonight I was doing more research on the topic and found that a parasitic wasp and a fungus get the credit!

https://www.albanyherald.com/news/lo...a84a54988.html

Probably the best link I've read of the history of kudzu in the South:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/scien...uth-180956325/
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