What Is It? Wednesday – Bacterial Wilt

This is a pigweed seedling that came up in a field that was disked recently. Pigweed, also known as Palmer amaranth (Amaranthus palmeri), is one of the most aggressive weeds that farmers battle.

These muscadines have been fed on by the larvae of a leafminer (a species of fly (Diptera)). Adults lay their eggs on the surface of a fruit, stem, or leaf of a plant, and the larvae tunnel in the tissue of the plant, forming a distinct-looking pattern where they have fed.

The Russia-Ukraine grain deal that has been critical to keeping global food prices stable and preventing famine is currently in tatters. On July 17, 2023, Russia said it was pulling out of the year-old deal, which allowed shipments of grains and other foodstuffs to travel past the Russian naval blockade in the Black Sea. And to make matters worse, over the next two days Russia bombed the Ukrainian grain port of Odesa, destroying over 60,000 tons of grain.

The ability to camouflage oneself and the level of that camouflage is often a matter of life and death for an insect. Adults and larvae employ static strategies such as adapting their shape, pigmentation, and color patterns to disguise themselves. Some insects can modify themselves in response to the environment. Still, others, larvae, in particular, adorn themselves with leaf and flower parts, frass, lichens, dead insects, soil particles, small rocks, and other organic material to disguise themselves or create protective covers in a display known as decorative crypsis.

The recent news that all Pyrus calleryana cultivars – the most common of which is the Bradford pear – and several Elaeagnus species have been added to the “do not sell” list in South Carolina has generated a lot of buzz and a lot of questions from homeowners. We’ll try to answer some of those questions in this blog post.

If you’re looking for an inexpensive and easy way to re-establish vegetation along a waterway, livestakes are for you! Livestake installation is a method of propagation that uses cuttings from a select few species of plants that love to grow along rivers, wetlands, and streams. They merely look like 2-foot sticks to the untrained eye, but livestakes are full of life and ready to start growing when the weather turns warmer.

A thriving hemp industry is emerging in South Carolina despite some growing pains. When the South Carolina Department of Agriculture (SCDA) received approval for the state hemp plan under the USDA early in 2020, over 350 farmers in the state obtained licenses, and 220 farmers obtained licenses in 2021 to grow hemp for its valuable flowers. The decline in applications for licenses to grow hemp between the two years was due to nationwide overproduction of floral hemp in 2020, which prevented some farmers from selling their product. As the industry matures, these supply and demand issues are working themselves out across the country in the floral hemp industry as hemp grown for other products that utilize its fiber parts and seeds is on the rise. We see federal agencies implementing new rules, more grant opportunities for hemp research available, and better banking and insurance options for farmers coming online.

Each year the South Carolina Department of Agriculture puts out a call for applications to farm hemp in the state. In 2022 nearly two hundred farmers were issued permits to grow industrial hemp in South Carolina.

What controls are in place at Clemson University (CU) to ensure compliance with state and federal hemp farming regulations? Clemson University’s Regulatory & Public Service Program works closely with the South Carolina Department of Agriculture (SCDA) Hemp Farming Program (as authorized by SC Code Ann. 46-55-10 et seq.) to ensure all program requirements for working with Industrial Hemp are met and that all CU employees and the public are protected.

This may look a lot like a paper wasp, but it is actually a mantidfly. If you look carefully, you’ll notice the front pair of legs is different from the two back pairs.

Did you just see a fuzzy red and black ant scurrying across your yard, driveway, or pine straw? Then you just saw a velvet ant – they’re closely related to ants but are actually wasps. There are many species of velvet ants in South Carolina, but the species Dasymutilla occidentalis is probably the most common and most often seen.

This is a caterpillar known as the hickory horned devil. The adult is a beautiful moth known as the regal moth (Citheronia regalis), but it is rarely seen due to its nocturnal habit.