Ping Yu: Welcome to the Blooms and Beyond podcast, a podcast that uncovers plant history, culture,
Ping Yu: and management through the lens of science.
Ping Yu: I'm your host, Ping.
Ping Yu: How's everyone doing today?
Ping Yu: I'm doing great because I have one of my dear colleagues and friend, Dr. Zee Ahmed, here with me today to talk about one of the most urgent topics in the green industry, two-spotted cotton leafhopper.
Ping Yu: Zee has been working on different pests for years, and we're going to pick his brain today to address one of those most concerning issues.
Ping Yu: A bonus for you guys today is besides Zee, we have also brought another colleague, Dr.
Ping Yu: [VERIFY: Possible Whisper artifact]
Ping Yu: Tom Bilbo, who has been dealing with this pest in vegetables, to give us additional
Ping Yu: perspective on this specific pest.
Ping Yu: So without further ado, I don't want to steal any more spotlight from our speakers today.
Ping Yu: Let's just jump right into it.
Ping Yu: Without further ado, here is my conversation with Dr. Zee and Tom.
Ping Yu: I hope you enjoy it.
Ping Yu: So hi, Zee and Tom.
Ping Yu: Welcome to the podcast.
Ping Yu: But first, let's start off with the introduction.
Ping Yu: Can you tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do?
Ping Yu: Zee, do you want to go first?
Zee Ahmed: Thank you, Ping. I appreciate you inviting us to discuss this important topic.
Zee Ahmed: Hi, everyone. I'm Zee Ahmed. I am an assistant professor at Clemson University,
Zee Ahmed: and my lab technically works on turf and ornamental entomology-related issues.
Zee Ahmed: And overall, the focus which I have in my program is...
Zee Ahmed: sustainable pest management. We do work on sustainable pest management and we don't
Zee Ahmed: want to help people control the pest in the turf and ornamental industry sustainably.
Zee Ahmed: And there are different schools of thoughts about sustainable pest management. The one
Zee Ahmed: which I believe and I want to do in my career, especially on this position, is to help growers
Zee Ahmed: apply control safely and at the same time with less cost.
Zee Ahmed: So that's where I feel like sustainability is safe and cost-effective.
Ping Yu: Tom?
Tom Bilbo: Hey, Ping.
Tom Bilbo: I'm Tom Bilbo, Assistant Professor of Vegetable and Strawberry Entomology.
Tom Bilbo: I'm also at Clemson University.
Tom Bilbo: I'm at our
Tom Bilbo: Coastal Research and Education Center in Charleston, South Carolina.
Tom Bilbo: Most of my research is in biological control of insect pests, insecticide resistance,
Tom Bilbo: and improving insecticide use overall.
Tom Bilbo: And so this is an interesting insect because it crosses over into a variety of fields,
Tom Bilbo: you know, ornamentals, vegetables, field crops.
Tom Bilbo: So it's an interesting problem for sure.
Ping Yu: So Tom, do you think you guys grew up as a nature kid or how did you first spark your
Ping Yu: interest in pests and plants?
Ping Yu: Or is this something just you never thought about getting into, but somehow end up in here?
Zee Ahmed: Well, I think I would say I was a nature person.
Zee Ahmed: I was an outdoor person.
Zee Ahmed: I still have very vivid memory of me collecting dragonflies during my primary school.
Zee Ahmed: That's what I remember, earliest memory.
Zee Ahmed: So yes, I was a nerdy nature guy.
Ping Yu: what about you Tom?
Tom Bilbo: yeah I grew up like in you know being big in the nature but I didn't I wasn't one of those kids that
Tom Bilbo: grew up playing with insects I was afraid of spiders and I had my parents do a spider check
Tom Bilbo: in my room you know every night but now I love spiders but yeah it really wasn't until college
Tom Bilbo: had a really good undergrad course with a great teacher, Tom Schultz, and
Tom Bilbo: And then studied abroad and saw some amazing insects and just fell in love with entomology.
Tom Bilbo: Yeah, so that's kind of how I came about it.
Ping Yu: And then did you get your, where did you get your degrees?
Tom Bilbo: My undergrad was at Denison University in Ohio and then PhD at Clemson University.
Ping Yu: What about you, Zee?
Zee Ahmed: I got my undergrad in entomology from Pakistan.
Zee Ahmed: about 7,000 miles away from here.
Zee Ahmed: So I have a very interesting journey to reach where I am now.
Zee Ahmed: Right after undergrad, I was looking for a scholarship
Zee Ahmed: and there was a cultural exchange scholarship between Pakistan and China.
Zee Ahmed: So I moved to China in Guangzhou, one of the third largest cities in China.
Zee Ahmed: And there's a famous agriculture university, South China Agriculture University.
Zee Ahmed: Did my master's there.
Zee Ahmed: And right after my master's, I was looking for a PhD scholarship.
Zee Ahmed: And that was a time when Commonwealth scholarship was announced and I applied for Commonwealth
Zee Ahmed: scholarship.
Zee Ahmed: I was asked to choose one Commonwealth country's.
Zee Ahmed: So one of the Commonwealth countries and I decided to go to South Africa.
Zee Ahmed: I did my PhD from University of Pretoria, again, across the continent, went to different
Zee Ahmed: continent.
Zee Ahmed: I was so much energetic.
Zee Ahmed: I don't know why I had that much energy that time.
Zee Ahmed: So then I was looking for a postdoc.
Zee Ahmed: I was offered postdoc with the University of Florida.
Zee Ahmed: I was with the University of Florida.
Zee Ahmed: for about four years. Then I was offered a job with the Florida Department of Agriculture and
Zee Ahmed: Consumer Services. I was there as an entomologist for four years. Then I moved to USDA for about
Zee Ahmed: four years. I was a research entomologist with USDA Fort Pierce facility, working on ornamental pests.
Zee Ahmed: I came to know my predecessor decided to leave this job.
Zee Ahmed: He jumped ship and I was so happy, but at the same time sad because my predecessor
Zee Ahmed: was very well known in turf and ornamental industry.
Zee Ahmed: So then I moved to Clemson University last year.
Zee Ahmed: And since then, I'm here and very excited to be part of the academic community again.
Ping Yu: Yeah, yeah. Well, don't worry. Your predecessor is doing great, but you are going to do a great job too.
Ping Yu: Speaking of that, do you speak any Chinese or Mandarin while you're in China?
Zee Ahmed: I guess you have to learn to buy stuff, right?
Zee Ahmed: Otherwise, you have to...
Zee Ahmed: Like bargaining was something you have to do whenever you go out.
Zee Ahmed: So, Toshu Chian was my first...
Zee Ahmed: Even before Ni Hao, I learned Toshu Chian.
Zee Ahmed: And I guess that's something my senior told me that I have to learn that word
Zee Ahmed: whenever I go buy the stuff.
Zee Ahmed: I didn't even know how to say numbers, but I knew how to say Toshu Chian.
Zee Ahmed: And then we do a numbering on calculators.
Ping Yu: I'm talking about the price.
Ping Yu: Yeah, and "duōshao qián" is "how much."
Ping Yu: If you ever watched the stand-up comedy with, oh gosh, Jimmy O. Yang, he had a special episode
Ping Yu: or special, Netflix special.
Ping Yu: Guess how much?
Ping Yu: That's his mom's catchphrase.
Ping Yu: I guess that's an Asian thing.
Ping Yu: But Tom, do you run into the same issue while you were studying abroad or with your exchange program?
Tom Bilbo: Having to speak other languages?
Ping Yu: Uh-huh.
Tom Bilbo: No, I'm just, I'm a typical American.
Tom Bilbo: I studied abroad in Ecuador.
Tom Bilbo: Spanish?
Tom Bilbo: I attempt to speak some Spanish to get around and basics like that, but...
Tom Bilbo: No, I can't. I can't hold my own in a convo. I can read the newspaper a little bit.
Ping Yu: So how did you guys start to work on this pest issue or this pest?
Ping Yu: Because I think the whole thing, the two-spotted cotton leafhopper, started to draw attention.
Ping Yu: I don't know about vegetable or cotton industry, but in green industry, I start to hear that a lot.
Ping Yu: since earlier this year.
Ping Yu: And then all of a sudden it becomes such a big issue.
Ping Yu: But can you share a little bit about the background from your side
Ping Yu: of how you guys got interested and drew your attention to this pest?
Zee Ahmed: Yeah, so I can go first.
Zee Ahmed: I was, first time I came to know about this from my colleague here, Dr. Francis Reay-Jones,
Zee Ahmed: he came to my office and told me that they are having a lot of issues with the cotton.
Zee Ahmed: And he brought actually a sample to me and we were taking pictures together for that in
Zee Ahmed: that pest.
Zee Ahmed: So that's where I started thinking about it. And that was around early summer this year.
Zee Ahmed: I know I talked to my colleagues in Florida. One of my really best friend and colleague,
Zee Ahmed: Aimee Roda, I talked to her. She was previously working in USDA. Now she's with the University
Zee Ahmed: of Florida. I talked to her briefly and then I started looking for it in Florida.
Zee Ahmed: South Carolina because my aim was to see if we have it here.
Zee Ahmed: Obviously, we knew it is on cotton for sure.
Zee Ahmed: And within just a week or something, we received a call from a grower at our farmer's market.
Zee Ahmed: And she grows hibiscus and she sells hibiscus.
Zee Ahmed: And apparently, the hibiscus which she had in her back...
Zee Ahmed: Backside of her outlet shop in a farmer's market, there were over 100 hibiscus.
Zee Ahmed: And she wanted me to go and check them.
Zee Ahmed: And I took my students and went there without any effort.
Zee Ahmed: They were there.
Zee Ahmed: we were not sure how long they were there and then we traced them back to the nursery.
Zee Ahmed: Again, I'm talking about those hibiscus which were being grown here and not those which were
Zee Ahmed: imported and they were there and it didn't take us much effort to do it, to find it.
Zee Ahmed: Yep.
Zee Ahmed: And that's what I came to know about it and since then,
Zee Ahmed: All our efforts are trying to help reduce the population, because we know we still have growers who have a zero pest tolerance.
Zee Ahmed: So we're trying to find a way to reduce it at a zero so they can sell their crops.
Zee Ahmed: That's what was my first introduction with this pest.
Ping Yu: What is, what's the story behind the thing on the vegetable side, Tom?
Tom Bilbo: Yeah, really for us in South Carolina, it really came out of nowhere and it came fast.
Tom Bilbo: Didn't, I hadn't even heard about the insect until again, like Francis Reay-Jones and Jeremy Green, our colleagues here at Clemson working in cotton.
Tom Bilbo: They brought it up in like July, maybe I was like, yeah, I'll keep a lookout, look out for it.
Tom Bilbo: You know, only a couple of weeks passed before we started finding it.
Tom Bilbo: I mean, in the low country where I am, low country, South Carolina, it's like every okra
Tom Bilbo: we look for, we found it on.
Tom Bilbo: And so we have a good agent down here, Zach Snipes.
Tom Bilbo: He went around and just, I mean, almost every single farm had it.
Tom Bilbo: And we're like, wow, okay, this is, it's not just here, but it's everywhere.
Tom Bilbo: And we got to start getting a grip on it.
Tom Bilbo: So then all of our agents banded together and they started sampling a lot of the counties
Tom Bilbo: in South Carolina.
Tom Bilbo: And we started to understand that it was pretty widespread both throughout South Carolina and among cropping systems.
Ping Yu: Do you guys happen to know when it is first reported in the United States?
Ping Yu: Is that an invasive pest or is it just native pest?
Zee Ahmed: So it was reported in 2024, if I remember correctly.
Zee Ahmed: Tom, you can correct me.
Zee Ahmed: But before that, it was reported in the Caribbean.
Zee Ahmed: Yeah.
Zee Ahmed: And then it was reported in Florida.
Zee Ahmed: And 2025, it's now almost all in Southeastern states.
Zee Ahmed: I cannot say all, but most of Southeastern states has it.
Zee Ahmed: And it seems like it is here for some time based on the number of generations we are finding, based on the level of infestation.
Ping Yu: So, because I think one of the major concerns of this pest, at least for the green industry, is...
Ping Yu: Once it becomes a quarantine pest in any given state, it makes it even harder.
Ping Yu: It kind of worries people, especially growers, who have to deal with this pest.
Ping Yu: It's kind of like the situation with thrips parvispinus back then in Florida.
Ping Yu: And people freak out because they have to...
Ping Yu: control this pest. Otherwise, they cannot basically run their operation for days until they're clear.
Ping Yu: But back to the point, can you give a little background, an introduction to our audience today who may not be familiar with what is the two-spotted cotton leafhopper?
Ping Yu: Can you share with us a little bit about the pest?
Ping Yu: basic information on the biology side.
Ping Yu: What does it look like and what is their life cycle?
Zee Ahmed: I can go.
Zee Ahmed: So regarding the life cycle, which is I think so whenever we receive any invasive species,
Zee Ahmed: We are dependent on the life cycle study, the biology study, which came from the native region, right?
Zee Ahmed: And that can sometimes, that helps, but we still have to do our own studies.
Zee Ahmed: We are in the process to do life cycle study.
Zee Ahmed: So first thing I would say right away for this is really small.
Zee Ahmed: I'm talking about the adult, it's less than five millimeters.
Zee Ahmed: So it's really small.
Zee Ahmed: And the best thing about this is that it has two black spots on its posterior wings, both wings.
Zee Ahmed: So you can see those two spots.
Zee Ahmed: I'm talking about adult.
Zee Ahmed: Size is still small, but those two spots is the reason it has a name, two spots,
Zee Ahmed: cotton leafhopper.
Zee Ahmed: So it lays egg and eggs, within six to nine days, they hatch in the summer because the
Zee Ahmed: study was conducted in the summer.
Zee Ahmed: And there are five nymphal instars.
Zee Ahmed: We observed based on our initial data that each instar lasted two to three days.
Zee Ahmed: This is something which is talking about on hibiscus.
Zee Ahmed: So in overall, we are noticing that egg to adult developmental period on hibiscus was about two to three weeks.
Zee Ahmed: This was study conducted.
Zee Ahmed: We are still doing this.
Zee Ahmed: We're still doing this work, but this was done in September and October in the field cages.
Zee Ahmed: So the nymph, they usually feed underside, allowing veins of the leaf.
Zee Ahmed: And overall, what we observed so far, adult lives about two weeks, about 13 to 14 days,
Zee Ahmed: male adult.
Zee Ahmed: And the females, they live a little longer than the male.
Zee Ahmed: Life cycle very heavily dependent on the temperature and host plants.
Zee Ahmed: We recently published a study in GrowerTalks, which is online, came in the December issue,
Zee Ahmed: and we provided a field guide for...
Zee Ahmed: with the very initial data about its diagnostics and its biology on hibiscus.
Zee Ahmed: So I would really recommend people to look at it.
Zee Ahmed: So a little bit about the damage symptoms.
Zee Ahmed: We are noticing that, as you have seen in literature,
Zee Ahmed: this hopper is associated with a very specific damage which is called hopper burn.
Zee Ahmed: And hibiscus, we found the bond was not as much as in cotton.
Zee Ahmed: Again, we had a light infestation when we got hibiscus.
Zee Ahmed: And when population was there for some time, we started finding a lot of yellowing and browning.
Zee Ahmed: And then we did find a wilting and curling of leaves.
Zee Ahmed: And again, the symptoms are yellowing, curling, wilting, and typically it is called hopper
Zee Ahmed: burn.
Zee Ahmed: And that's on hibiscus.
Zee Ahmed: I think Tom maybe went ahead from vegetable side.
Tom Bilbo: you can find similar symptoms on the vegetable,
Tom Bilbo: yellowing of the leaves,
Tom Bilbo: curling of the leaves for sure.
Tom Bilbo: I guess just to add what you said,
Tom Bilbo: you noted they have the two spots make it characteristic.
Tom Bilbo: I think you were compiling a list,
Tom Bilbo: I don't know if you published it yet,
Tom Bilbo: a list of possible lookalikes,
Tom Bilbo: but I think at least in the U.S.,
Tom Bilbo: if you were looking for...
Tom Bilbo: that, you know, leafhopper shape and then those and then the spots is more or less indicative.
Tom Bilbo: You know what you have.
Tom Bilbo: And and you're like you said, it's small, easy to miss.
Tom Bilbo: A lot of folks, I think, are seeing the damage before they're ever seeing the insects.
Ping Yu: Yeah, just to clear one thing here for people who doesn't know why cotton leaf hopper is a big issue for hibiscus from the plant perspective.
Ping Yu: Cotton and hibiscus are from the same family.
Ping Yu: So that's why the name is cotton leafhopper, but it does cause a lot of damage for a lot of ornamental plants that share some similar characteristics with the family.
Ping Yu: Speaking of that...
Ping Yu: Do you guys know what is the host range for this pest?
Ping Yu: I know it's wild, but can you give us a couple examples from both ornamental and the vegetable
Ping Yu: side?
Zee Ahmed: As I mildly said, it has a broad host range.
Zee Ahmed: So, there's no doubt it's a polyphagous pest.
Zee Ahmed: It's not out.
Zee Ahmed: It's going to hit a lot of host plants.
Zee Ahmed: But I want to re-emphasize on the Malvaceae family, which has cotton, hibiscus, okra.
Zee Ahmed: Tom can also confirm that.
Zee Ahmed: It has a special preference for that.
Zee Ahmed: Yes, we know that family contain a lot of economically important crops, but...
Zee Ahmed: But then there is another family which is Solanaceae, which has eggplants and some other
Zee Ahmed: important crops.
Zee Ahmed: It does feed on that too.
Zee Ahmed: So yes, polyphagous. Malvaceae and Solanaceae, these are important families where it can feed.
Zee Ahmed: And it might surprise us with some host plants which we are not familiar with.
Zee Ahmed: Most of the literature on this pest from the Old World is actually from cotton growing regions
Zee Ahmed: because that's the main crop in the native region of this pest.
Zee Ahmed: So there are not many studies that were done on broader host range because people were so busy
Zee Ahmed: because it was a huge problem in cotton, so they were so busy
Zee Ahmed: dealing with the cotton and cotton is an important crop in its native region,
Zee Ahmed: they're not much done about exact host list about this pest.
Zee Ahmed: So we're going to learn about it in the next few years.
Tom Bilbo: Okra and eggplant are known to be at greatest risk.
Tom Bilbo: Okra really is getting hammered. For us, that seems to be highly preferred and highly susceptible.
Tom Bilbo: I've been to farms that have both eggplant and okra have always been a lot worse.
Tom Bilbo: On okra, the numbers, it can really just get out of control.
Tom Bilbo: And so a lot of our okra growers are having issues with it.
Tom Bilbo: Left unmanaged, it's just completely killing plants.
Tom Bilbo: Okra, which is, I mean, okra is a hardy vegetable. It's not known for being attacked by as many pests as some of these other vegetables are, but this is definitely a problem. And it can get into these fields really quickly. I planted a small little stand of okra here in the fall.
Tom Bilbo: And these okra were barely out of the ground and they were already covered by leafhoppers. And it's like, where did they come from? They just, they found the okra really quickly and they were killing that plant pretty quickly. So, but it's such a new pest. We have so much to learn about it. But yeah, the wide host range is of serious concern.
Ping Yu: Yeah, because I would assume this pest, similar to other invasive pests as well, they would
Ping Yu: have a wide host range for attacking a lot of plants, but apparently they have their favorite
Ping Yu: and preferences.
Ping Yu: Am I getting right at this stage with all the knowledge that we know about this pest from
Ping Yu: the vegetable side and hibiscus from the, well,
Ping Yu: Okra and cotton from the vegetable side.
Ping Yu: And I don't know if cotton is categorized as vegetable.
Ping Yu: But anyhow.
Zee Ahmed: You might offend cotton people.
Ping Yu: Oh, sorry.
Ping Yu: Let me rephrase.
Ping Yu: So from the cotton commodity group, the cotton, and from the vegetable, okra, from the green
Ping Yu: industry, from the ornamental side, it'll be hibiscus.
Ping Yu: Those three are the most susceptible plants as of now with our knowledge about this plant.
Ping Yu: Is that right?
Zee Ahmed: So, yes, for sure.
Zee Ahmed: For vegetable and cotton, what you mentioned is true.
Zee Ahmed: And for hibiscus, it's also true.
Zee Ahmed: But I want to put a disclaimer here.
Zee Ahmed: For hibiscus, the critical part is so far is what we are learning is hibiscus might be the
Zee Ahmed: driver to spread this because people buy hibiscus, they move hibiscus, they take them to landscape
Zee Ahmed: and then they take them closer to the field crop area, vegetable area.
Zee Ahmed: One of the major concerns regarding the hibiscus is
Zee Ahmed: It might play a very crucial role in its dispersal.
Zee Ahmed: We are at early stage.
Zee Ahmed: This is still a pest of limited distribution.
Zee Ahmed: Yes, hibiscus, it is a pest of hibiscus,
Zee Ahmed: but why it is crucial to learn more about hibiscus at this stage
Zee Ahmed: because that might play a role in how quickly it's going to spread
Zee Ahmed: and how we can mitigate its spread if we can control hibiscus,
Zee Ahmed: control it on hibiscus faster.
Zee Ahmed: Okay.
Ping Yu: Okay, and I could extend our knowledge a little bit by saying this pest might be in the cotton or in the okra and then spread or jumped into the hibiscus plant nearby.
Ping Yu: Would that be a possible alternative pathway for the distribution of this as well?
Ping Yu: Or it's vice versa?
Ping Yu: Okay.
Zee Ahmed: No, I didn't mean to say — I want to correct myself to make sure that I said the right statement.
Zee Ahmed: So I'm not saying Hibiscus started the spread, but I'm just saying Hibiscus move around faster as compared to we're not going to move Okra from one house to another house, right?
Zee Ahmed: We're not going to move it.
Ping Yu: Yeah, yeah, you're right.
Zee Ahmed: So I didn't mean to say that it's coming from hibiscus, but I'm just saying hibiscus can be a plant which can move it around.
Zee Ahmed: Yes, it could be coming from hibiscus and then you move hibiscus from one area to another area.
Zee Ahmed: It could be coming from cotton to hibiscus and then you move hibiscus.
Zee Ahmed: Because cotton and okra will most probably not going to move around.
Zee Ahmed: Hibiscus is going to be move around.
Zee Ahmed: It's going to dry.
Zee Ahmed: But it also could be any field area.
Zee Ahmed: Cotton, okra, hibiscus.
Ping Yu: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I get your point. I'm just, you know, depending on the nature of me being in the green industry. But I know what you're saying because of the distribution of ornamental plants that might be
Ping Yu: redistributing the pest to other areas because of the plant movement or the trade.
Ping Yu: But can you tell us a little bit about how growers can identify this pest in the field and how do they know if they have a pest issue?
Zee Ahmed: I think for vegetable and cotton, infestation, again, I think I will let Tom say about vegetable.
Zee Ahmed: In general, for hibiscus, population doesn't grow.
Zee Ahmed: This is, again, we just published an article in GrowerTalks, and we observed the biology on hibiscus is relatively slower as compared to what is published on cotton and okra.
Zee Ahmed: So population at hibiscus may not grow as fast as on other plants.
Zee Ahmed: That's based on our very initial data. We are still in the process.
Zee Ahmed: And then, so it means in hibiscus, you will be finding population low
Zee Ahmed: and the field guide which we provided in that article,
Zee Ahmed: it starts with learning about its size.
Zee Ahmed: So first thing you have to understand
Zee Ahmed: how big it is, right?
Zee Ahmed: Or technically I should say how small it is.
Zee Ahmed: And then second thing you wanna learn about
Zee Ahmed: its symptoms, damage symptoms.
Zee Ahmed: But the infestation at early stage,
Zee Ahmed: you may, the damage symptoms may not appear.
Zee Ahmed: So that's how we started scouting in the landscape
Zee Ahmed: and there were successful incidents where we found it.
Zee Ahmed: We started flipping the hibiscus leaf
Zee Ahmed: starting from the middle to going upward.
Zee Ahmed: And when you flip the leaf,
Zee Ahmed: You will see close to the mid rib, you will see the tiny, I'm talking about immature one,
Zee Ahmed: because adults, they hop, it's hopper, right?
Zee Ahmed: If you're going to flip the leaf, they're going to hop from one leaf to another leaf.
Zee Ahmed: So you're most probably not going to easily see adult in the start,
Zee Ahmed: unless you train your eyes, will take some time for that.
Zee Ahmed: But you flip the leaf and they are immature, you will notice that
Zee Ahmed: They are like a tiny light yellowish thingy which will be less than two to three, between one to three millimeters in size.
Zee Ahmed: They will move in a very funny way.
Zee Ahmed: And that's one way you're not going to see eggs.
Zee Ahmed: So here another thing which I want to emphasize here, because they lay eggs inside the leaf.
Zee Ahmed: So, eggs are not visible, outside eggs are not very visible.
Zee Ahmed: And we may be unknowingly, because we see there is no immature or adult, but eggs might, since eggs we cannot see, we might be...
Zee Ahmed: unknowingly skipping its scouting.
Zee Ahmed: So we need a regular scouting.
Zee Ahmed: Because eggs hatch, say, between seven to six days,
Zee Ahmed: six to seven days, or six,
Zee Ahmed: actually in our case, you know,
Zee Ahmed: hibiscus we found six to nine days.
Zee Ahmed: So you have to scout regularly
Zee Ahmed: because once eggs are hatching,
Zee Ahmed: you will see immature,
Zee Ahmed: but you will not be able to see eggs
Zee Ahmed: So I would refer every listener to check out our field guide in GrowerTalks.
Zee Ahmed: We elaborated this description, diagnostic description.
Ping Yu: We focused on hibiscus in that guide.
Ping Yu: Have anything to add, Tom?
Ping Yu: Tom?
Tom Bilbo: Yeah, just that at the time being, we're still working out sampling plans and all that, but you'll just need to get out looking at plans, trying to find adults, find immatures.
Tom Bilbo: My guess is we're probably going to see them at the edges of fields first in the sense of, you know, vegetable and cotton fields and all that.
Tom Bilbo: But again, we don't have, I don't think we have the transect sampling data yet.
Tom Bilbo: conducted yet so a lot that we'll need to do but yeah i'll say let me say something about
Tom Bilbo: sticky cards because we i didn't have any dedicated projects this past this fall but
Tom Bilbo: we incidentally kept finding them in different trials we had and so one of my PhD students, Sabina Parajuli, she had a zucchini trial and it had moderate infestations with
Tom Bilbo: perajuli she had a zucchini trial and it had moderate infestations with
Tom Bilbo: two-spotted cotton leafhoppers. So, okay, so zucchini, that's one we haven't talked about yet.
Tom Bilbo: That's a cucurbit crop. Why is it — it wasn't expected to see so many of them there.
Tom Bilbo: But from what we've seen here and from what our agents have said around the state is that a lot
Tom Bilbo: of people are seeing these show up in cucurbits. We don't believe that they're a pest at this point,
Tom Bilbo: but it's just yet another host, another reservoir for them to exist in. So,
Tom Bilbo: So we had a zucchini trial and we had a lot of yellow sticky cards out there and the sticky cards caught a lot of two-spotted cotton leafhoppers.
Tom Bilbo: And I just analyzed that data and the sticky card counts have a pretty strong correlation with the plant counts.
Tom Bilbo: So at least in the case of zucchini, the sticky cards are reflecting what we're seeing on the leaves.
Tom Bilbo: And so maybe an important monitoring tool and easier because this is such a small insect.
Tom Bilbo: You know, you don't have to be there turning around leaves and looking around plants and choosing the right leaf and all that stuff. So, so the sticky cards look like they're probably going to be a good monitoring tool. But again, we'll want to hammer that out for specific crops and to see what the sticky cards actually tell us. But, you know, you could probably stick them up at the edge of the fields and I have a sense that they would give you an early detection.
Tom Bilbo: So.
Ping Yu: I'm glad you mentioned the sticky card because I was thinking while you guys are talking about the characteristics of this pest and being so small,
Ping Yu: now can growers effectively detect them or monitor them at an early stage?
Ping Yu: Zee, do you know if anything has been done with the sticky card on the ornamental side?
Ping Yu: Or is this something that we need to look into down the road?
Zee Ahmed: I have not seen any data outside at this stage.
Zee Ahmed: I'm sure there are folks, some of my colleagues, they are trying to work on it.
Zee Ahmed: Yeah.
Zee Ahmed: We did a visual count during our trial, but yes, I would also try to see down the road
Zee Ahmed: if we can use potentially to detect them at early stage, especially in a nursery setting.
Ping Yu: Yeah, because I think that would be an essential step for growers to early detect and have a good scouting program for this pest specifically. But other than sticky cards, are there any handy
Ping Yu: tools that growers can use to help them identify for their scouting,
Ping Yu: like such as the handy lens or the hand lens, things like that?
Zee Ahmed: At early infestation, a lens would be very helpful because there will be immatures
Zee Ahmed: and eggs will be hatching and they'll be first, second, and early instars.
Zee Ahmed: So they are really small.
Zee Ahmed: And yes, lens will be really helpful.
Zee Ahmed: And I would suggest 10 to 30x lens, that would be very helpful.
Zee Ahmed: But once the infestation is established and it's going to be heavy infestation,
Zee Ahmed: as I've seen in some vegetable fields, when infestation is heavy,
Zee Ahmed: you will see them right away.
Tom Bilbo: Yeah, they're small and so they can be hard to find, but they're bigger than for us that work with thrips and mites, which can be even a lot smaller.
Tom Bilbo: And once you know what to look for and once you've been trained or you know what to look for with those spots and you have a hand lens to help you confirm, it's not the most difficult insect to kind of look for.
Tom Bilbo: and ID, but it takes, you know, you got to kind of know what you're looking for.
Ping Yu: Can you give us like a very clear and simple ways for growers to identify in the field?
Ping Yu: Like, for instance, you guys briefly mentioned about the characteristics of this pest, the two spots and we need to identify.
Ping Yu: flip the leaves upside and to look for, can you give us like a very short, sweet way for growers
Ping Yu: to go look for when, where, what to look for in that regard so that they can have a very clear way
Ping Yu: to more accurately look for or identify this pest?
Ping Yu: [VERIFY: Possible Whisper artifact]
Zee Ahmed: Do you want to go first?
Zee Ahmed: First thing I would do symptoms observation.
Zee Ahmed: If I walk into a hibiscus nursery or hibiscus production area, I would start looking for symptoms.
Zee Ahmed: symptoms because if there are symptoms that's probably one thing which I want to observe.
Zee Ahmed: Especially as I mentioned earlier the hopper burn symptoms, yellowing, wilting, curling,
Zee Ahmed: Especially as I mentioned earlier, the hopper burn symptoms, yellowing, wilting, curling,
Zee Ahmed: all those symptoms which generally appear on hibiscus when they have pests.
Zee Ahmed: That's a very general symptom for most pests.
Zee Ahmed: We want to help growers to be trained for that.
Zee Ahmed: That's where I think they have to,
Zee Ahmed: if I would be a grower,
Zee Ahmed: I would, or if I would be somebody who wants to scout,
Zee Ahmed: I would first equip myself with the available material.
Zee Ahmed: Here, one of them,
Zee Ahmed: I, as I mentioned earlier, field guide,
Zee Ahmed: which is, which we recently published,
Zee Ahmed: have that material with you.
Zee Ahmed: That I will do second thing.
Zee Ahmed: And then read that material carefully
Zee Ahmed: before you start scouting.
Zee Ahmed: And then at early stage,
Zee Ahmed: As I mentioned, if there are only eggs, you're not going to see them.
Zee Ahmed: But then if you come back after, say, a week or something, a week, at least a week, not at least, at maximum week.
Zee Ahmed: So you should have come within the week and then check again.
Zee Ahmed: And if those eggs have hatched, you will see tiny light yellowish things on the underside of the leaf along the midrib.
Zee Ahmed: And they move very funny way.
Zee Ahmed: So they move from left and right for some reason.
Zee Ahmed: Observing them, make sure you should equip yourself with the available material
Zee Ahmed: and then go in the field knowing that you may not find it right away.
Zee Ahmed: But if you keep regular scouting within the seven days of previous scouting,
Zee Ahmed: if they are eggs, if they are hatched,
Zee Ahmed: you will find immatures moving on the underside of the leaf along the midrib.
Tom Bilbo: Yeah, the only thing I would add is, and this is my kind of general advice for scouting vegetable fields in general is, if you have symptoms, if you know what you're looking for with the symptoms, then you can walk around and you can look for, if you have a sharp eye for those symptoms, you can cover a lot more ground that way looking when you're not stopping and turning over leaves.
Tom Bilbo: You can cover a lot more area by going around and keeping a close eye for symptoms.
Tom Bilbo: And then when you see any kind of yellowing or maybe curled leaves, then you can start turning over leaves.
Tom Bilbo: I...
Tom Bilbo: Or you can do it in a more controlled way where you are going to say, I'm going to do a transect across this field.
Tom Bilbo: So, yeah.
Tom Bilbo: Make and try to look at the borders and the interior, turning over leaves every 10 plants or, you know, how big the field is.
Tom Bilbo: But make sure to, especially until we know exactly the best places to look on each of these different host plants, is look at different plants.
Tom Bilbo: Don't just look at the oldest ones.
Tom Bilbo: Don't just look at the newest ones.
Tom Bilbo: But yeah.
Tom Bilbo: Make sure you're kind of looking at the whole plant because you may see them on some leaves and not others.
Tom Bilbo: So, yeah, that's what I would do.
Ping Yu: So basically right now, we don't even know if this pest specifically prefers the new leaves or the older leaves or anything in between.
Ping Yu: Do you have any information on that?
Tom Bilbo: You can see a lot of the, you know, when they're laying, like a lot of insects are laying eggs on leaves.
Tom Bilbo: They'll lay the eggs, they may lay them on the newer leaves, and then by the time you start to see a lot of nymphs, those end up being, you know, maybe further down the plant or depending on the plant.
Tom Bilbo: So you may see a lot more nymphs on older middle-aged leaves, and you may see more adults laying eggs on newer leaves.
Ping Yu: So basically, it's, it'll attack the whole plant with their different life stage.
Ping Yu: But are there any available cultural practices that could potentially help reduce the pressure of the leafhopper?
Zee Ahmed: I would say in a nursery setting, when inspect the plant, when plants are coming from outside for sure, anything coming out from outside has to be inspected, especially if it's hibiscus.
Zee Ahmed: And I would also add here again, you cannot control eggs, right?
Zee Ahmed: Eggs are there and you don't know if eggs are there because they are in the leaf.
Zee Ahmed: And so that makes it a little more challenging to suggest what to do when we cannot even see if the pest is there. So I would, at this stage, say scouting, scouting, and scouting. Inspecting material which is coming inside.
Zee Ahmed: at this stage. We are hopeful we will have some data in the future about different varieties.
Zee Ahmed: And so we can say this variety is less susceptible as compared to other ones.
Zee Ahmed: There are some variety differences in other studies, so that would be helpful in the future.
Zee Ahmed: Again, not much to say. We are still learning about this pest.
Zee Ahmed: I'm talking about just the ornamental nursery production side.
Zee Ahmed: I wish I could say more about it, yeah, about cultural practices.
Ping Yu: What about from the vegetable side, Tom?
Tom Bilbo: By being, we don't have anything concrete.
Tom Bilbo: I
Tom Bilbo: We, there was a lot of ideas, you know, I think we'll know a lot more after next field
Tom Bilbo: season when we actually had a chance to do things, but, but in general, like a lot of
Tom Bilbo: pests, you want to conserve natural enemies.
Tom Bilbo: We, that we don't have a lot of good biocontrol studies done for this, for this insect, especially
Tom Bilbo: in the U S in the U S.
Tom Bilbo: But there was a lot of, there was a lot of predators hanging around these plants, you
Tom Bilbo: know, lady beetles.
Tom Bilbo: and some others. And so they were probably eating some of these. So it's always good practice to try
Tom Bilbo: to conserve those beneficial predators and parasitoids. And the easiest way to do that
Tom Bilbo: is to not spray broad-spectrum insecticides.
Tom Bilbo: So, and I believe from the insecticide trial that's been done, say the pyrethroids are
Tom Bilbo: a classic case of broad spectrum known for killing natural enemies.
Tom Bilbo: I don't, generally I don't think they're looking to be that effective anyways compared to other
Tom Bilbo: products, other modes of action, but avoiding the broad spectrum use, try to conserve natural
Tom Bilbo: enemies, let them help you as much as they can and hopefully we'll develop more targeted
Tom Bilbo: bio-control strategies.
Tom Bilbo: But we have a lot to learn.
Ping Yu: I think that's, well, that's job security we're talking about right now with all those things with this pest.
Ping Yu: But in general, I think, well, in the vegetable side, I guess there's not so many to do, especially with the plants are...
Ping Yu: in the ground, we can move.
Ping Yu: But for nursery settings, most of the plants are in containers.
Ping Yu: We can move them around.
Ping Yu: I don't know if we have enough data yet to see if any of the spacing or mulching
Ping Yu: or pruning might be some ways to potentially reduce the pressure of the pest in general
Ping Yu: because we have seen some...
Ping Yu: similar trends on other pests.
Ping Yu: So they might potentially provide
Ping Yu: additional ways for managing this pest.
Ping Yu: But again, we don't have solid data yet.
Tom Bilbo: There's a lot that we may be able to leverage
Tom Bilbo: disrupting their ability to find fields
Tom Bilbo: or maybe plants and nurseries
Tom Bilbo: or something like that,
Tom Bilbo: you know, different kinds of mulches,
Tom Bilbo: reflective mulches.
Tom Bilbo: We did.
Tom Bilbo: It's very preliminary,
Tom Bilbo: but my student, you know,
Tom Bilbo: in that zucchini trial,
Tom Bilbo: Two of the main treatments were those that had a lot of habitat complexity due to cover crop residue surrounding the plants.
Tom Bilbo: Those had less leafhoppers than those that were just bare ground.
Tom Bilbo: And so if that repeats next year and we see significantly reduced numbers in those cover crop habitat treatments,
Tom Bilbo: We try to get out why that is. Is it disrupting their preference for those plants or is it increasing biocontrol or some other mechanism? But a lot of folks are going to be doing a lot of research on this in the next year. Some promising areas, promising angles to attack this pest from.
Ping Yu: Yeah, because the reason why I asked about this is because we found a pretty interesting
Ping Yu: results from one of the ongoing works that we're doing.
Ping Yu: My student who was working on thrips parvispinus, and she's looking at different horticultural
Ping Yu: practices to manage this pest.
Ping Yu: And one of the ongoing trial that she did with the mulch trial, she did find effective
Ping Yu: way of using mulch to reduce the population of the pest.
Ping Yu: So I'm relating to the new pest because, well, it's a different pest, but there are certain, like the concept would relate.
Ping Yu: So I was thinking maybe down the road, if we could do some trials on that, from that angle, we could potentially develop some effective ways from like the horticultural practices or cultural practices to better manage this pest.
Ping Yu: Yeah.
Ping Yu: So, Zee, I know that you mentioned a lot about the GrowerTalks field guide. And can you elaborate and talk to us a little bit more about the hibiscus trial that you did and just share some of the results with our listeners today?
Zee Ahmed: So we just finished it, four weeks count, and we are in the process to analyze that.
Zee Ahmed: The work which we brought online as soon as we could in GrowerTalks, because that was
Zee Ahmed: in high demand, they needed something at this stage so they can, especially talking about
Zee Ahmed: growers, they needed something so they have some information.
Zee Ahmed: So we used six treatments.
Zee Ahmed: based on IRAC groups, different mode of action, including contact, translaminar, systemic material,
Zee Ahmed: and the idea was to see if we can find groups which are effective and can be rotated.
Zee Ahmed: The results are for 14 days, they are a treatment. So the data after treatment for
Zee Ahmed: 14 days is available in that Grow Talks article, but we are in the process to finish the
Zee Ahmed: final version for whole research.
Zee Ahmed: So if I have to summarize that, we think there is a way to control it.
Zee Ahmed: It's not, it's not, sky is not falling.
Zee Ahmed: We can control this pest based on our trial.
Zee Ahmed: And we did mention about the effective treatments in that trial.
Zee Ahmed: The thing which I want to emphasize here is matching the treatment based on the life stages.
Zee Ahmed: That's something is very important.
Zee Ahmed: We should not be expecting that all treatments or all chemicals you're going to use will control
Zee Ahmed: all life stages.
Zee Ahmed: So that's something I want to emphasize.
Zee Ahmed: And as our translaminars...
Zee Ahmed: We think and systemic, they performed better against Nymphs which are feeding.
Zee Ahmed: So they're a really good result.
Zee Ahmed: I would suggest people to look at that data in that GrowerTalks article.
Zee Ahmed: And we were really hopeful that we can knock the population down at good level based on the products which are available.
Ping Yu: I will make sure to add the link to the show notes so people can click on that and look for more information on that.
Ping Yu: But you mentioned a key point here that the life stage of the leafhopper is critical for controlling this pest.
Ping Yu: Which life cycle or which stage of this pest is the nymph phase or adult phase most susceptible?
Ping Yu: Or if I put that other way, is the stage that people would target when applying any of the treatments?
Zee Ahmed: So this is what we did on hibiscus.
Zee Ahmed: So story can be different when you're dealing with raw crops.
Zee Ahmed: So we noticed that we can knock down adult with most of product.
Zee Ahmed: We were excited to see that.
Zee Ahmed: So when it comes to immature,
Zee Ahmed: Again, I want to re-emphasize, we're talking about here ornamentals.
Zee Ahmed: And ornamentals, we want to make sure growers can sell it without the pest on it.
Zee Ahmed: So we have a small window to control it and make sure we can sell it without,
Zee Ahmed: because we know consumers have zero tolerance for pest.
Zee Ahmed: And so we wanted to have the products which we used,
Zee Ahmed: There are different mode of action and susceptibility obviously in general, if you talk about insects,
Zee Ahmed: immatures are more susceptible.
Zee Ahmed: They usually stay on the leaf, they don't really go far.
Zee Ahmed: And in this case, adult hops move from one place to another place and their dispersibility is more than immatures.
Zee Ahmed: But then we're talking about growers where we want them to control our life stages so
Zee Ahmed: they can sell plants without pests.
Zee Ahmed: So we're targeting our life stages.
Zee Ahmed: We want to target adults, we want to target immature.
Zee Ahmed: We have our trial basically saying that if there are more immatures, then you have this
Zee Ahmed: product which you should apply.
Zee Ahmed: And if there are more adults, you should integrate this product with that.
Zee Ahmed: to knock them down.
Zee Ahmed: And then you have to follow up spray too
Zee Ahmed: and follow up scouting as well.
Zee Ahmed: Because if I am doing spray today
Zee Ahmed: and I knock the population down
Zee Ahmed: and there are eggs which are there today,
Zee Ahmed: I'm not going to kill them.
Zee Ahmed: And they're going to hatch.
Zee Ahmed: So, in that kind of scenario, we need a translaminar and systemic action.
Zee Ahmed: If eggs are hatching next week, seven days or 10 days from now on, they will not feed
Zee Ahmed: or if they feed, they will get the lethal dose in their body so we can have an effective
Zee Ahmed: result.
Zee Ahmed: If we strategize it, it can be controlled based on our result at this stage on hibiscus
Zee Ahmed: If we strategize it, it can be controlled based on our results at this stage on hibiscus in ornamental settings.
Zee Ahmed: Can I ask Tom because I want to see if he can add on.
Zee Ahmed: If we are using a translaminar in ornamental settings, would you suggest translaminar, systemic and vegetable as well?
Tom Bilbo: There's a lot of benefits from a pest management standpoint, yes, to translaminar and systemic because it can help you gain access to parts of the planet that can be difficult to reach.
Tom Bilbo: So now depending on the on the crop, you know, some crops you got to be you want you got to be extra careful about pollinators and all that. And but yeah, generally, yeah, the translaminars and systemics can can help you out a lot by kind of getting, you know, the product can kind of get into those nooks and crannies better.
Tom Bilbo: So for a pest that's going to be on the underside of the leaves, then you got to get good penetration of the spray and the canopy.
Ping Yu: Oh, I was asking, so from the vegetable side, do we, for the growers also need to target all stages of the pest when they apply?
Tom Bilbo: Yeah, I mean, like Z said, nymphs are always more susceptible. If you can get adults, that'd be great. What it seems like, if it's anything, if next year is anything like this year, they're going to be everywhere. And if you're growing something like okra, that's highly susceptible, you're going to have pest issues at some point.
Tom Bilbo: So again, I'm really curious what's going to happen with the overwintering this year and what we see next year. So we'll keep a close eye on things throughout the year when the problems really emerge. But yeah, but if it's anything like this year, you're like guaranteed to have problems if you're an okra grower in the lower half of the state. So it's just a matter of when they're going to be there. And you want to...
Tom Bilbo: if you're basing it off of this year,
Tom Bilbo: then the numbers are going to get very severe.
Tom Bilbo: And so you want to manage them
Tom Bilbo: before it's a total outbreak situation.
Tom Bilbo: So you got to get out in fields at least once a week.
Tom Bilbo: And when you start to see populations establish and build,
Tom Bilbo: then you got to know what you're going to put out there.
Tom Bilbo: And you should probably have
Tom Bilbo: multiple, like have your rotation lined up from the products that we do know have some efficacy.
Ping Yu: Are there any other steps or practices that growers need to incorporate for what they have for other pests into their IPM program?
Zee Ahmed: At this stage, we have knowledge based on what has been done in other parts of the world.
Zee Ahmed: And we have chemical control options which people used in other parts of the world.
Zee Ahmed: The thing which you are lacking is biological control.
Zee Ahmed: We don't have much information about the biological control.
Zee Ahmed: As you already asked us about the culture control option,
Zee Ahmed: we have a culture control option based on common sense,
Zee Ahmed: based on the knowledge which we got from other pests.
Zee Ahmed: But specific to this pest, we still don't know.
Zee Ahmed: Cropping season, planting time, and varieties which are resistant, less susceptible.
Zee Ahmed: And then the products which can be rotated,
Zee Ahmed: in the way that we can use them across three disciplines, across three crops, cotton, vegetable, and hibiscus,
Zee Ahmed: because the availability of products, what we will have, we can use.
Zee Ahmed: There's a lot to learn about this pest at this stage.
Zee Ahmed: So, again, answer would be we don't know much.
Ping Yu: Yeah.
Ping Yu: I guess that brings to my next question.
Ping Yu: what is your plan
Ping Yu: what is your
Ping Yu: next excitement for this pest in relating to your research side and extension side.
Zee Ahmed: So far in South Carolina, we are collaborating very closely.
Zee Ahmed: Tom, he's working on the vegetable side.
Zee Ahmed: I am working on the ornamental side.
Zee Ahmed: We have Dr.
Zee Ahmed: Francis Reay-Jones, Dr. Jeremy Green, they both are working on the cotton side.
Zee Ahmed: So our target is we first coordinate efforts.
Zee Ahmed: [VERIFY: Possible Whisper artifact]
Zee Ahmed: That's our first aim, next step.
Zee Ahmed: We want to coordinate within this state.
Zee Ahmed: Second step is that we also in the process to make a working group across different states in Southeast.
Zee Ahmed: We have already applied and Ping and Tom, you guys are part of that group.
Zee Ahmed: We want to have our coordinated efforts.
Zee Ahmed: I'm talking about a bigger picture at this stage.
Zee Ahmed: So we want to make sure what I am doing in South Carolina, as my colleagues are doing Florida and some colleagues are doing Georgia.
Zee Ahmed: We coordinate this all very well that we can plan this as a collective and collaboratively.
Zee Ahmed: That's our bigger, bigger plan.
Zee Ahmed: And we're really hoping that we can establish this working group.
Zee Ahmed: This will tremendously help to mitigate the pest dispersal, will help our growers.
Zee Ahmed: And we're producing an extension-based article as well. I will publish in GrowerTalks.
Zee Ahmed: And a lot of material is coming through the website.
Zee Ahmed: social media, helping people, making sure people are aware.
Zee Ahmed: And we are in the process to do a lab bioassay in my lab
Zee Ahmed: to see the efficacy, maybe at a deeper level.
Zee Ahmed: We just finished the plant bioassay.
Zee Ahmed: So these two projects at this time, we're doing in my lab in a
Zee Ahmed: ornamental setting.
Zee Ahmed: And again, my focus is to make sure we have a coordinated effort.
Zee Ahmed: That's something we need for almost all invasive species.
Zee Ahmed: And I'm hoping we will be successful in that.
Tom Bilbo: Sure.
Tom Bilbo: Yeah, the working group will be great because having the collaboration — that's the only way we can as quickly as possible generate a variety of recommendations.
Tom Bilbo: So yeah.
Tom Bilbo: Not every one of us can do everything. So having different people work on different things, we can quickly come up with a list of we'll know that, hey, these eight insecticides are going to be your bets to choose from. These are better early season. These are better late season. Maybe if we get some like the like mulch work, like, oh, maybe reflective mulches or white mulches or black mulches tend to be more or less susceptible.
Tom Bilbo: these cultivars seem to be more or less susceptible.
Tom Bilbo: So we'll hopefully start to piece together as much helpful information as
Tom Bilbo: possible.
Tom Bilbo: And then of course we need to get that information out there.
Tom Bilbo: So making sure growers are aware of this pest and knowing what to look for so
Tom Bilbo: that,
Tom Bilbo: so that they can management and so that they're doing it the right way.
Tom Bilbo: And,
Tom Bilbo: and in the short term,
Tom Bilbo: that's coming up with curative solutions like insecticides and,
Tom Bilbo: making sure that they know what the pest is and they're applying what we know to be effective and not going out there wasting money and causing undue damage by spraying the wrong product for the wrong pest or whatnot.
Tom Bilbo: and,
Tom Bilbo: This fall, a lot of people didn't realize what the problem was until one of our agents would get out there and be like, you have the new invasive.
Tom Bilbo: It's here. That's what's causing it. It's not.
Tom Bilbo: aphids, it's not whiteflies.
Tom Bilbo: So with the specialists and the county agents and taking a collaborative effort,
Tom Bilbo: getting the word out there, it's going to be important.
Tom Bilbo: But I think, yeah, I'm feeling optimistic that we can come up with some good
Tom Bilbo: approaches pretty soon.
Ping Yu: I think working as a team can really make a difference.
Ping Yu: move fast and can piece together with the puzzle faster.
Ping Yu: And thank you both Tom and Zee for taking time out of your busy schedule to talk with us
Ping Yu: and providing all those insightful information to our audience today.
Ping Yu: And thank you for all the work that you're doing to help our growers and our stakeholders out there.
Ping Yu: So thank you.
Zee Ahmed: Thank you for inviting us. And I really want to say here that the efforts you're doing are going to have so much impact because this kind of information needs to be spread faster and the way you are doing it.
Zee Ahmed: This is the new way and people are listening to it.
Zee Ahmed: And thank you again for inviting us.
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Ping Yu: And as always, go check out the show notes to learn more about this topic and other topics we featured on the show at bandbpod.com.
Ping Yu: Thank you for listening.
Ping Yu: Till the next time, stay healthy and go plants.