AgriLife Puts Screwworm and Pasture Mealybug in the Same Room on Oct. 26

Robertson County ranchers have spent 2026 tracking two very different livestock problems: a flesh-eating fly escorting itself north through the border counties, and a sap-sucking insect quietly thinning the pastures those counties graze. On Oct. 26 they can hear both stories in one building.

Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service has booked its Beef Cattle and Forage Management Seminar at the Pridgeon Community Center, 351 Cooks Lane in Franklin. Registration runs $60, includes a catered lunch and materials, and closes Oct. 21 — either through the online registration page or by calling the AgriLife Extension office in Robertson County at 979-828-4270.

The continuing education package is usually what fills the room: up to seven Texas Department of Agriculture credits, spread across one hour of laws and regulations, three hours of integrated pest management, two general hours and one hour of drift management, open to every license holder.

Screwworm gets the long slot. Sonja Swiger, Ph.D., an AgriLife Extension entomologist based at the AgriLife Research and Extension Center at Stephenville and a professor in the Department of Entomology, will walk through what the program handbill calls "the entire story of devastation and control options" — a year that has produced 53 confirmed New World screwworm animal cases in the United States since June, 51 of them in Texas and two in New Mexico.

Three of those cases are still active: a dog in Brewster County confirmed Oct. 2, goats in Crockett County confirmed Sept. 26 and a horse in Grant County, New Mexico, confirmed Sept. 17. A horse in Presidio County that was confirmed Sept. 9 has since been reclassified as inactive, and a wild screwworm fly pulled from a Brewster County surveillance trap on Sept. 25 is counted separately from the animal tally. Federal officials describe the parasite's northward push as slowed but not stopped, with the USDA reporting more than a billion sterile flies released in Texas since February and a target of 500 million flies a week by next summer.

David Kerns, Ph.D., AgriLife Extension entomologist and associate head of the Department of Entomology, takes the pasture mealybug, the pest that has forced stocking reductions in bermudagrass and bahiagrass across the state. His session follows an August emergency exemption from the EPA that put Centric 40WG in growers' hands and a federal bill, H.R. 10542 from U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz, that would order the USDA to study containment of the insect.

The rest of the day belongs to the pasture itself. Barron Rector, Ph.D., a range specialist and associate professor in the Department of Rangeland, Wildlife and Fisheries Management, covers weed identification with chemical control options. Jacob Wightman, AgriLife Extension's agricultural and environmental safety program specialist, reviews the laws and regulations governing pesticide use in Texas. Justin Hale of Ignition Land Services handles drift control and spray efficiency, and Vanessa Corriher-Olson, Ph.D., a forage specialist at the AgriLife Research and Extension Center at Overton, closes with management of high-quality hay fields.

AgriLife asks for RSVPs by Oct. 21 so the Robertson County office can plan the lunch count and print the materials. The number again is 979-828-4270.