–by Dr. Jeff Whitworth and Dr. Holly Schwarting
The majority of the double cropped sorghum seems to be past flowering and almost to the soft dough stage. This means much of this crop is almost past the susceptible stage relative to corn earworms (a.k.a. sorghum headworms), which is about soft dough. Later planted sorghum still needs to be monitored though as earworm moths are still ovipositing in sorghum heads. Sugarcane aphids (SCA) are still very active in north central Kansas, as are their natural enemies, and thus these populations should also continue to be monitored. The insecticides registered for sugarcane aphids have performed really well at controlling these aphids, as have the products used for controlling headworms. Just remember, gallonage is extremely important for SCA applications.