Protecting the Southeast from Beetles and Hornets

With your Southeast Regional Ag News, I am Haylie Shipp. This is the Ag Information Network.

The deadline is quickly approaching for the 2024 Southern Pine Beetle Assistance and Prevention Program for non-industrial, private forest landowners in Florida. First offered in 2005, the Program is supported by a grant by the U.S. Forest Service and provides incentive payments for landowners who have overstocked pine stands and need to conduct a first thinning. In addition, it offers partial cost reimbursement for activities that can mitigate southern pine beetle activity, such as prescribed burning, mechanical underbrush treatments, and the planting of longleaf or slash pine rather than loblolly pine, the beetle’s preferred species. July 26 is the deadline. Forty-four northern Florida counties are eligible. Get the details at FDACS.gov.

And in Georgia, the Department of Agriculture is hiring part-time trappers to help locate and eradicate the invasive Yellow-Legged Hornet, which threatens the state’s number one industry - agriculture. While beekeepers and master gardeners are preferred, anyone interested can apply at careers.georgia.gov. Trappers will be trained to use and monitor traps and identify the hornets, contributing to the effort to protect local agriculture from this invasive species.