By Anthony Bailey
LSU AgCenter
On a Monday morning at a sugarcane farm in Port Allen, LSU AgCenter entomologist Blake Wilson and two student workers pushed through green and yellow cane stalks on a field’s border and into the interior rows. There, they found plants that were completely brown.
This farm, and many others throughout the state, has been infested with the pasture mealybug, an invasive species first identified by Louisiana crop consultants last year.