You think you have a problem with plant bugs in your cotton?
What about a snail that “can reach the size of an average size
adult fist … have a very large appetite, and have been known to
feed on 500 different plants?” Or how about the Asiatic rice
borer, a single larva of which has been documented as destroying
up to 10 rice plants? Or soybean pod borers, one of the most
serious soybean pests in Asia, the female moth of which deposits
eggs in soybean pods, which the larva then proceed to eat? These
are among numerous exotic — and very invasive — insects and
weeds that the Cooperative Agricultural Pest Survey (CAPS)
program will be on the lookout for in 2011. CAPS is a
partnership between federal and state agricultural organizations
to conduct surveillance, detection, monitoring, and management
of exotic weeds, plant diseases, insects, nematodes and other
invertebrate organisms not native to the U.S. Kenneth Calcote,
branch director of the Plant Pest Division of the Mississippi
Department of Agriculture and C