I found a colony of sugarcane aphids on Johnsongrass near the Lubbock airport on Monday, June 29th after only 10 minutes of looking for the insects. An additional 30 minutes of looking resulted in no additional colonies being found. The aphid identification was confirmed by other Extension IPM personnel via digital photo.
Sugarcane aphid is on the southern High Plains for 2015, but the good news is that it appears to be in low numbers so far. Blayne Reed, Extension Agent IPM in Hale, Swisher and Floyd counties, and his scouts sampled two dozen sorghum fields on June 29th in Hale and Swisher counties and did not find any sugarcane aphids. Floyd county was not sampled. Kerry Siders, Extension Agent IPM in Hockley, Cochran and Lamb counties, spent time this week sampling Johnsongrass in Hockley and Cochran counties and did not find any sugarcane aphids.
Many of the aphids found in the Abilene area and southward last week were winged, and it is likely they are on their way north.
The Extension Entomology group on the southern High Plains; Blayne Reed, Tommy Doederlein, Kerry Siders and Pat Porter are putting together a two page guide on dealing with the sugarcane aphid on whorl stage sorghum. This guide will appear here in the next day or two and will include identification, scouting, treatment thresholds and insecticide suggestions.
