Summary of Losses from Insect Damage and Costs of Control in Georgia - 1997

XXI. Tobacco Insects

D. C. Jones and R. M. McPherson

Tobacco was harvested from 44,000 acres in 1997, down four percent from the 1996 acreage. Georgia's average yield was 2030 pounds per acre, down from the record high of 2470 lbs. per acre in 1996. The average price received in 1996 was $171.20 per cwt, down $10.10 from the 1996 price, marking the value of the crop nearly 153 million.

For the second year in a row, the tobacco budworm was not the number one insect pest on flue-cured tobacco in Georgia. The tobacco hornworm was the number one pest of the crop, with total losses exceeding $1.24 million. This was down over one-half from 1996. Most of the losses in 1997 were due to crop losses from defoliation.

Budworms were the next most economically damaging pest, costing Georgia producers over $1.1 million. These losses were about equally split between damage and control costs. Wireworms were the third most costly insect pests, costing producers over $0.9 and flea beetles were the fourth ranked pest causing nearly $0.8 million in losses.

Mole Crickets were the fifth ranked insect pest in 1997, costing producers over $0.6 million. Thrips and aphids were also reported as economic pests in 1997, totalling $0.4 and $0.3 million in losses, respectively. All of the reported thrips losses were due to costs of control, although spotted wilt virus was a serious problem in many producer's fields. This pathogen is vectored only by certain thrips species. All other pests accounted for $50,000 in losses in 1997. These other pests were primarily splitworms, cutworms, whitefringed beetles, stink bugs, spotted cucumber beetles and banded cucumber beetles.

¹Includes application costs.
²Yield units measured in pounds.
³"Others" include splitworms, cutworms, whitefringed beetles, stink bugs, spotted cucumber beetles, and banded cucumber beetles).