Frequently Asked Questions About Insects - Department of Entomology at Texas A&M University

Frequently Asked Questions

Topic:	Caterpillars, loopers
Question:	I am farm manager of a soybean plantation and have a question about soybean loopers. Some of the information I have says that if adults feed on cotton nectar before laying eggs in soybeans, that they will produce more eggs, perhaps a 60-fold increase. Also they have a known resistance to organophosphates, pyrethroids, and carbamates. I had a control failure using pyrethroids, but later had good control with a carbamate. Also good control with a different strain of Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) on first generation, but not later generations. I think that it is in fact soybean looper not cabbage looper. We pulled some mandibles and best I could tell they belong to soybean looper. Any information would be appreciated. Thanks.
Answer:	Our specialist in soybean insects in Texas is M. O. Way at the Beaumont Center. You ultimately may want to talk to him. I do not know enough about this insect to verify the relationship between nectar feeding and egg production. This work was probably done in another state. There has been a lot of entomology work on soybeans, so you might have to look through the library to find it. I would suggest looking for other causes of "control failures" of chemicals. Coverage is often the biggest problem, especially in older crops with a lot of foliage. Individual locations may have strains that are resistant to only some of the chemicals. Visit our publications site and type in soybeans in the keyword search box.
Related Link:	http://insects.tamu.edu/extension/publications/
Related Link:
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Response by:	John A. Jackman, Ph.D.
Title:	Professor and Extension Specialist
** Most of the Related Links above also contain images.

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