Source: Hannah Burrack, NCSU COLLEGE OF AG & LIFE SCIENCES, 5/28/18

This is the fifteenth thrips flight and TSWV risk assessment report. Read about why we are posting these reports and more in our first report. Read more about tobacco thrips biology and TSWV transmission.

Third generation thrips flights are now underway at all of our report sites. We’ll continue to post reports through the predicted fourth generation flights, as this may be relevant for some growers who transplanted tobacco later. Once thrips flight have begun, no additional preventative treatments can be made.

TSWV symptoms have begun appearing in fields. Some locations we have visited have about the expected level of incidence, but we have also gotten reports from areas in southeastern NC, where TSWV incidence is typically highest, of high rates of infection.

The conditions we experience last growing season had the potential to result in higher carryover this year, but our cold winter and wet spring had the potential to reduce risk. The next several weeks will tell us which had the biggest effect. We’ll be paying close attention to how disease incidence develops throughout the state.

Growers are reminded to use the most recent information available to make management decisions. Predictions are most accurate closer to predicted thrips flight dates. The information presented here is intended to supplement, but not replace, farm-specific predictions.

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