Sesame leafroller is a major pest of the crop, and we have tracked its movement north this year. This is a new pest for us. Dr. Emi Kimura, our agronomist in Vernon, reported it last week. This week Drs. Qingwu Xue and Jourdan Bell reported it at Bushland, and one of our superb Independent Crop Consultants reported it at Abernathy just north of Lubbock and made comment that he treated the field three weeks ago and now had to treat again. He also just today reported it near Gruver in the northern Panhandle.
Dr. Holly Davis, Extension Entomologist in Weslaco, recently posted a nice blog article and video on sesame leafroller, so I won't duplicate that information here. She conducted an insecticide efficacy trial which showed pyrethroids don't work all that well. She also found that the 8 oz and 12 oz. rates of Prevathon worked very well, and the 8 oz rate did just as good a job. (The difference will be that the 12 oz rate will provide longer residual control.) Blackhawk also worked very well at 1.1 and 2.2 oz, but Blackhawk is not labeled for use on sesame.
Here are some photos from near Abernathy today.
