This document discusses insect pests that affect sugarcane production in Florida and the integrated pest management (IPM) strategies used to control them. It describes the main insect pests that damage roots, shoots, stalks and foliage and groups them by the plant parts they affect. The IPM program utilizes cultural controls like disking, flooding and crop rotation, biological controls including the release of parasitoid wasps, economic thresholds to determine need for treatment, host plant resistance through breeding programs, and chemical controls as a last resort. Natural enemies such as predators, parasites and pathogens play a key role in maintaining pest populations below damaging levels.

1. IPM for Sustainable Sugarcane
Production in Florida
Gregg Nuessly
Everglades REC-IFAS
Belle Glade

2. 440,000 acres

3. IPM of Florida Sugarcane
Insect Pests
Grouped by Plant Damage:
Roots, Seed Pieces, Tillers
Stalks
Foliage

4. Insect Pests of Sugarcane
Roots, Seed Pieces, Shoots
Sugarcane grub
- root feeder
Corn wireworm
- root, shoot feeder
Lesser cornstalk borer (LCB)
- shoot feeder

5. Sugarcane grub
Root feeding causes
- reduced vigor
- lodging in storms
- stool dislodging
during harvest
Larva
Adult

6. Corn wireworm
Shoot and seed piece feeding
causes
- dead heart &
stand loss
Larva Adult

7. Lesser cornstalk borer
Shoot feeding causes
- dead heart
& stand loss
Larvae Adults

8. Lesser
cornstalk borer
damage
Rows
of
holes
Dead
shoots
Feeding
tube
New
shoot

9. IPM for Pests of Roots,
Seed Pieces and Shoots
*Cultural Control
- Disking & cultivating
- kills and exposes them
to natural enemies
- Flooding and rotation (Rice)
- soil type, season & duration

10. IPM for Pests of Roots,
Seed Pieces and Shoots
*Cultural Control
- Weed control in fallow fields
reduces Summer egg
deposits by wireworm adults

11. IPM for Pests of Roots,
Seed Pieces and Shoots
*Chemical Control
- At plant treatment for grubs
and wireworms directed into
furrows when flooding or
rice rotation is not possible
- Post emergence for LCB

12. Insect Pests of Sugarcane
Stalks
Sugarcane borer
- leaves, mid to upper stalks
West Indian sugarcane weevil
- lower stalks

13. Sugarcane borer
Stalk feeding causes
- breaking, microbial
rot of stalk, reduced
yield
Larva
Adult

14. West Indian sugarcane weevil
Larva Adult
Stalk feeding causes broken stalks,
microbial rot of stalks, increased rat
damage, yield loss

15. West
Indian
sugarcane
weevil
damage

16. IPM for Pests of Stalks
*Biological control
- Cotesia flavipes, parasitoid of
sugarcane borer released
in 1960’s
- Research by Dr. David Hall,
U.S.Sugar Corp., led to culture
and mass production of wasps

17. Biological control of
sugarcane borer
Cotesia flavipes
Larvae
Adult

18. IPM for Pests of Stalks
*Economic threshold used to
initiate treatments
- Fields scouted for damage
- Sugarcane borer larvae
examined for parasitism
- Cotesia wasps released in
fields as needed to augment
natural levels of parasitism

19. IPM for Pests of Stalks
*Host plant resistance
- Breeding programs
(public and private) select
for clones resistant to insects
and diseases
- Some clones much more
susceptible to stalk pests

20. IPM for Pests of Stalks
*Chemical control
- Insecticides applied by air
when late season damage is
above threshold
- Recent registration of selective
material provides alternative that
preserves natural enemy complex

21. Insect Pests of Sugarcane
Foliage
Sucking insect pests
- Yellow sugarcane aphid
- White sugarcane aphid
- Sugarcane lace bug
Chewing insect pests
- Armyworms
- Cutworms

22. Yellow sugarcane aphid

23. Yellow sugarcane aphid
Late season
Early season
Prolonged feeding leads to reduced
stalk diameter and yield loss

24. Yield loss from yellow sugarcane aphid

25. White sugarcane aphid

26. White sugarcane aphid
Honeydew deposits and sooty
mold fungus, but no losses

27. Sugarcane lace bug
Leaf feeding results in yellow and
red discoloration, large populations
can lead to premature leaf death

28. IPM for Pests of Foliage
Natural biological control agents
often keep populations below
damage threshold and respond
to outbreaks
- Ants (incl. red imported
fire ants), earwigs, beetles,
flower flies and spiders

29. Aphid predators
Doru taeniatum
Diomus terminatus

30. Coelophora
inaequalis
Cycloneda
sanguinea
Harmonia
axyridis
Hippodamia
convergens
Olla
v-nigrum
Aphid predators

31. IPM for Pests of Foliage
*Host plant resistance
- Yellow sugarcane aphids
colonize and damage only small
subset of clones
- Stage 3 clones now being
evaluated for resistance

32. IPM for Pests of Foliage
*Chemical control
Broad spectrum insecticides
used as last resort to prevent
or minimize losses from foliage
pests

33. Summary
- Insect pests of roots, seed pieces,
shoots & foliage
- IPM in Sugarcane includes:
cultural (incl. flooding & rotation),
chemical and biological controls,
scouting using treatment
thresholds, breeding program for
host plant resistance

34. Summary
- Natural and augmentative biological
control agents important for
maintaining insect populations under
economic thresholds