Robert Behle News Today

Agricultural Research Service scientists are leaving no stone—or rather, leaf—unturned in their search for new ways to counter the fungus that causes tar spot, a yield-robbing disease of field corn in the midwestern United States.First reported in Illinois and Indiana in 2015, tar spot has now expanded to include other nearby states, as well as Florida and Canada.

Stromata are a tough, structural form of the fungus that enables it to survive the winter and release spores the following spring that infect the next corn crop.

Scientists with the Agricultural Research Service have shown that seed meal from plants in the mustard family can kill mosquito larvae.

A recently published study by Agricultural Research Service scientists found that ticks, although not insects, are repelled by cedarwood oil.