Tobacco Budworms in Early Season

A tobacco budworm moth flight this week resulted in eggs being deposited in cotton terminals as far north as Prattville, Alabama. On June 5^th, about 40 budworms were collected from 100 tobacco plants at Prattville. All plants had feeding signs but parasites and predators were working on the population. Budworm feeding was also noted on tobacco planted as a sentinel crop at Headland, Alabama yesterday (June 7^th).

A call was received a few minutes ago about what is believed to be budworm larvae on peanuts from the Covington County Alabama-Florida panhandle area. These peanuts were young and had a limited amount of foliage with up to four budworm larvae (3-7 days old) per row foot. This same situation occurred about 3-4 years ago where budworms defoliated some fields of peanuts in June. At this early stage of the season, controls may be necessary due to the limited amount of vegetative growth of the peanuts.