While the cooler temperatures have many Arkansans gearing up for fall, melonworm has found its way into the state’s pumpkin patches, and extension horticulture specialist Aaron Cato is urging growers to scout early and often.
Melonworm is a pest of cucurbit crops — a family that includes pumpkins, squash and watermelons — that feeds on plant foliage and fruit, usually etching pumpkin rinds just under the stems, causing handles to pop off, or where the fruit contacts the ground. Often confused with pickleworm, melonworm is a different, tropical moth species that migrates to Arkansas from coastal regions.
Because melonworm doesn’t overwinter in Arkansas, its arrival varies year to year, typically beginning in early to mid-September, but sometimes as early as August…