Small Plot Insecticide Trial Against SCB, 1994

Control of the SCB was evaluated in a RCB design (4 replications) of plant cane at the St Gabriel Research Station, St Gabriel, LA. Insecticide treatments were applied over the sugarcane canopy with a CO2 backpack sprayer on 22 Jul, 8, and 26 Aug when the SCB infestation exceeded the economic threshold (5% of the stalks containing live larvae in the leafsheaths). Four 0.004 flat fan spray tips per 6 ft width of row at 32 psi applied 20.1 gal of finished formulation/acre. Prior to the initiation of the experiment, 2 applications of Lorsban 15G were made (15 lb/acre each) to suppress red imported fire ant predation on SCB larvae (10 May and 9 Jun). Due to weather conditions the timing of the first application was delayed 12 days. The three Rohm & Haas (RH-2485, RH-0345 and Confirm) treatments were applied with Triton CS-7 at 0.125% vol/vol, and the Condor treatment was applied with Kinetic, at a rate of 0.125% vol/vol. SCB damage was assessed by counting the bored internodes, exit holes, and total number of internodes from 80 randomly selected stalks of sugarcane (20 stalks/replication) in each treatment (18 Oct). Following ANOVA, separation of means was by LSD.