Kudzu bug threatening Southern exports

Some Latin American countries that trade with Southeastern states are worried that kudzu bugs may be headed south of the border, Southeast Farm Press reports.

In February, officials in Honduras discovered dead kudzu bugs in a shipping container from Georgia. This led the country to step up inspections of cargo from Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee and Alabama, according to the publication.

The kudzu bug only arrived in the Western Hemisphere in 2009, coming into Atlanta from Asia. But since then it has spread across at least 230 counties in four states.

It’s now found in all 46 South Carolina counties, more than 140 counties in Georgia, more than 40 North Carolina counties, along with parts of Alabama. Entomologists have been astounded by the insect’s rapid movement.

The bugs, known in most parts of the world as bean plataspids, look like boxy brown ladybugs and emit a foul-smelling secretion when threatened. While they are known to eat kudzu, they can also ravage soybeans, along with other legumes, according to the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension.

University of Georgia researchers scheduled an informational meeting late last month to share with Latin American officials what they have learned about the kudzu bug since its arrival in the Southeast.

‘Kudzu bugs’ an increasing Southern problem

How fast has the so-called “kudzu bug” moved across the Southeast over the past two years? Since arriving in the Western Hemisphere by way of Atlanta from Asia in 2009, the insect has spread from nine Georgia counties to across at least 230 counties in four states.

It’s now found in all 46 South Carolina counties, more than 140 counties in Georgia, more than 40 North Carolina counties, along with parts of Alabama, and entomologists have been astounded by its rapid movement, according to Southeast Farm Press.

The bugs, known in most parts of the world as bean plataspids, look like boxy brown ladybugs and emit a foul-smelling secretion when threatened. As a result, it’s often as easy to locate them by smell as by sight when they occur in large numbers.

While they are known to eat kudzu, they can also ravage soybeans, along with other legumes, according to the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension.

Clemson University Entomologist Jeremy Greene says the insects, often mistakenly referred to as stink bugs, are becoming a bigger problem in agriculture as they spread throughout the region.

Alabama honors Reconstruction black leaders

The state of Alabama recently attempted to correct a century-plus oversight by recognizing a group of black legislators who served during Reconstruction.

“Somewhere there’s a song about ‘It’s a long time coming,’ and it has been for the families of these great men,” Alabama state Rep. Thad McClammy, D-Montgom­ery, said during a ceremony this past Saturday outside the state Capitol.

McClammy, who took part in the “Reconstruction Descen­dants Weekend,” was quick to praise the black legislators who served with distinction, but without recognition by their white colleagues in the decade after the end of the War Between the States.

The 19th-century black leaders finally are recognized on historic markers at the Cap­itol and at Alabama State Uni­versity.

UAB scientist uncovers 17 Egyptian pyramids

University of Alabama Birmingham scientists employing a new type of infra-red imaging have discovered 17 lost pyramids and more than 1,000 tombs in the deserts of Egypt.

The astonishing results, which also include finding 3,100 ancient settlements, have been confirmed by archaeologists with picks and shovels, who have located two of the pyramids found from space, according to The Telegraph.

For more than a year a team led by Sarah Parcak, an Egyptologist and assistant professor of archaeology at UAB, used a combination of NASA and commercial satellites that orbited above the earth to capture the images of Egyptian antiquities, according to information released by the university.

She was able to uncover sites that had been invisible – including a world of houses, tombs and pyramids. Once the images were discovered via satellite, a team of French excavators confirmed what Parcak saw in the images from space, the school added.

Ginners appear set to handle cotton capacity

With cotton production booming, one wonders whether there is enough ginning infrastructure to handle anticipated capacity?

Cotton acreage increases are expected nationwide, with a total of more than 12.5 million acres expected to planted, 15 percent above last year, according to Southeast Farm Press.

The largest increase, at 548,000 acres, is expected in Texas, and acreage increases of more than 100,000 acres are expected in North Carolina, Georgia and Mississippi. Acreage has boomed with the jump in cotton prices over the past year to record levels.

Experts in some of the largest cotton-growing states say they anticipate no problems in terms of gins meeting the capacity needs of farmers.

Secession was anything but unanimous

A century and a half ago, secession was in full swing throughout the South. South Carolina had left the Union in December 1860 and Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana all followed suit in January. Texas did likewise on Feb. 1, 1861.

But, according to the above map – which breaks down counties based on whether they were for secession, against it or divided - breaking away was anything but unanimous, even in the Deep South.

Not surprisingly, South Carolina was all in for leaving the Union, but North Carolina and Arkansas were also undivided in terms of counties favoring disunion.