The 2011 season is clearly not like 2010. We are not seeing a province wide WBC peak flight like last year. Based on the trap counts that came in this week, it appears that some counties experienced peak moth flight last week (August 1st to 7th) while other counties are still going strong and may be peaking this week. Though the general trend is that our Central and Eastern trap sites are still going strong, it is not fair to say that all counties in Southern Ontario peaked last week. I can’t even draw a nice line on the map to show these differences. So the best I can do is list the counties we know have peaked based on our data and which ones are still going strong. Any counties missing from the list did not send in their data this week or last for us to be able to make a judgement call yet.
Counties that appear to have peaked last week: Essex, Chatham-Kent, Lambton, Oxford, Haldimand/Norfolk, Waterloo, Wellington, Brant, Dufferin, Grey, Simcoe, Kawartha Lakes, Hastings, Ottawa
Counties still seeing an increase in moth catches: Elgin and Huron (both experienced only slight increases), Middlesex, Bruce, Perth, York, Peel, Durham (saw significant increase), Prince Edward, Northumberland, Lennox & Addington. Quebec locations in general are still increasing.
Our Northern locations can not be determined as we did not receive trap counts last week from these locations.
What are we seeing in the fields? Some decent sized larvae are being found in ears in some fields. Some reps are surprised at the amount of damage they have found already despite not finding significant eggmasses earlier on. Even in fields that have Cry1F. My concern is that we still have a long way to go before harvest. Ear rots may have time to set in because of the damage the larvae are making, exposing the ear to potential disease infection. I strongly advice everyone to scout their fields in September to determine if it needs to be harvested earlier to avoid ear rot.
Dry Bean Fields –Now that some counties have peaked I suggest we all start focusing our attention at looking for pod feeding. 10 days to 21 days after peak flight is the appropriate time for management if required. If you have to spend more than 1/2 hr to find just a few pods with feeding damage then that field is not worth spraying. Check back again a week later.