Tishomingo County Extension Office

05/28/2026

Become a Certified Burn Manager in the state of Mississippi by taking the MS Certified Burn Manager Training from the MS Forestry Commission.

05/28/2026

05/26/2026

“Can I use a sugar substitute in place of regular sugar when making jam or jelly?”

No. Sugar helps with the gel formation in regular jams and jellies. It also reduces moisture for microbial growth. If you prefer a reduced sugar or sugar-free jam or jelly, make sure to use the correct recipe.

If you are planning to can fruits and vegetables this year, don’t just wing it. Planning and preparation are important first steps.

Make sure you have the right equipment and research-tested recipes. Both are essential to a safe product. Remember, home food preservation is a science.

Read the Complete Guide to
Home Canning: https://extension.msstate.edu/publications/the-complete-guide-home-canning

05/26/2026

We are excited to announce we will be hosting a Small Ruminant Educational Meeting on June 23 at 6:00 p.m. at The Place on Front!

Dr. Leyla Rio de Alvarez, Assistant Extension Professor and MSU Extension Sheep and Goats Specialist will present the program on “Basic Small Ruminant Production”

Tishomingo County Farm Bureau Federation will be the sponsor of the meeting.

See flyer below for more details and please RSVP to the Tishomingo County Extension Office at 662-423-7016 by Friday, June 19.

Tishomingo County Soil & Water Conservation District

Iuka Animal Clinic

Magnolia Way Veterinary Services

Animal's Choice Veterinary Clinic, LLC

Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation

05/26/2026

Leaffooted bugs can ruin a late-season vegetable garden!! Like stink bugs, which feed in a similar manner, leaffooted bugs attack a wide range of garden vegetables including, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, okra, peas, and beans.

They are especially damaging to tomatoes and they love tomatillios. Damage is caused primarily by the highly mobile adults, which feed on fruit with their piercing-sucking mouthparts, injecting their toxic saliva in the process and causing soft, sunken spots in the fruit. In addition, even mildly damaged fruit will often have an off taste. Also like stink bugs, leaffooted bugs have a distinctive, unpleasant odor, and they tend to congregate in groups.

Adults make a loud buzzing sound as they fly, and gardeners who are busy picking vegetables are often startled by the sound and sometimes mistake these for bees or wasps. The nymphs are reddish orange with black legs.

Infestations are highest in late summer and fall because they have already completed one or more generations and especially because adults are attracted to lush, productive vegetable gardens as they are flying from nearby, and not so nearby, weeds and row crops that have matured and are no longer suitable hosts.

Control: Spraying with an effective insecticide to directly contact as many insects as possible is the key to successfully controlling leaffooted bugs. Plan on spraying every 7 to 10 days once you begin to see, or hear, or smell, significant numbers of adults in the garden.

Because adults often fly out of the garden when disturbed (when they hear you coming with the sprayer) only to return later, spraying early in the morning, when temperatures are cooler and cold-blooded insects move more slowly, can help improve control.

Because treatment is most often needed during the harvest period, it is important to choose insecticides with short pre-harvest intervals (PHIs) and to coordinate your spraying and picking schedule. Zeta-cypermethrin (GardenTech Sevin Insect Killer Concentrate) and permethrin (several brand names) are two effective insecticides that have short PHIs on most garden vegetables. See product labels for details.

Some gardeners use a trap crop of large-flowered sunflowers to attract leaffooted bugs away from vegetable crops they are trying to protect. It only takes a dozen or so sunflower plants to do this in an average garden. Adults are attracted to the sunflowers and will lay their eggs and produce nymphs there. But be sure to spray the bugs on the sunflowers before the nymphs can mature and move to your vegetables. Otherwise you will have a nursery crop, rather than a trap crop!

05/22/2026

We held our monthly meeting yesterday at Robinhood Restaurant in Iuka. We had a wonderful meeting discussing all of our ongoing projects and future projects. We also recognized members Sam and Fredda McCune that received their 10 year service pins and Caffie Enlow, Diane Segars, and Vicki Bowen that received their 15 year service pins. Congratulations to each of you!! Tishomingo County Extension Office

05/22/2026

Our Cattlemen’s Association held their 2nd quarter Educational Beef Producer Meeting of the year last night with an outstanding program, presented by Jay Slater, with Mississippi Land Bank on “Beef Cattle Economics and Heifer Development.”

Thank you to Mississippi Land Bank - Corinth Branch and Solutions Rx for sponsoring the meeting.

Mississippi Cattlemen's Association

Mississippi State University Extension Beef

05/19/2026

“Is it possible for vegetables, especially squash, watermelons, pumpkins, etc., to cross in the garden to create a strange fruit?”

This question comes up every year! Here’s the bottom line on vegetable crossing:

Most vegetables do not cross since they would have to be in the same species to cross. But even if they DO cross (those that are in the same species) it will have no effect on the current year’s fruit.

Only the seeds will be affected and this will not show up unless you save your own seeds and plant them the next year. In that case, there may be all kinds off types produced.

FYI, watermelons and squash are in different species so it is impossible for them to cross at all.

The crosses that can occur are some squashes with some pumpkins (if they are in the same species, namely Cucurbita pepo) - there are several other species of squash and pumpkins.

Also, various types of melons (NOT watermelons) can cross. These include cantaloupes, honeydews, canaries, crenshaw, santa claus melons, and persian melons since they are in the same species, Cucumis melo.

05/14/2026

Our Tishomingo County Master Gardeners are the best! They are extremely hard working and highly devoted to all their projects!

05/13/2026

Our County Forestry Association held their 2nd quarter educational meeting lastnight, at The Place on Front.

Dr. Kristy McAndrew, Extension Forestry Assistant Professor presented the program on “Forest Health Related Issues following the Ice Storm”

Special thanks to our meeting sponsors: HJ Logging (Heath Johnson), Ricky Voyles Logging, The Apron Museum, and The Friendly Florist.

Mississippi State University Extension Forestry

Mississippi Forestry Association