Pest reaches La. rice paddy, heading toward sugar

Mexican rice borers have crawled into southwestern Louisiana rice plants and are heading for the nation’s sugar bowl, where the inch-long moth grubs are a much bigger threat. Although they can do serious damage in rice fields, crawling in and out of the narrow stalks makes the caterpillars vulnerable to pesticides, while fat sugar canes give them permanent shelter, says LSU AgCenter entomologist Gene Reagan. The one Louisiana rice paddy where Mexican rice borers have been found so far was near Vinton, though they probably are in others, says AgCenter rice expert Johnny Saichuk. As the moth’s range expands, it will become a problem for more farmers who rotate rice and crawfish, Saichuk says, adding that even before the pest’s arrival, “the marriage between rice and crawfish production turned out not to be as good as people first envisioned.” The grubs, which hatch into brown moths about a half-inch to three-quarters of an inch long, eat a wide variety of grains and grasses. Reagan says it will probably take them another year or so to reach commercial sugarcane fields in Louisiana.