I’ve been pondering our planting situation lately and what impacts it is going to have on some of our key insect pests. We’ve been anticipating this year to be a good soybean aphid year for Ontario. It was such an extremely low aphid year last year that natural enemies didn’t build up their populations. So […]
I realize it has been a difficult planting season to say the least. But one issue that growers need to consider is that spring canola fields planted later than the first week of June are at significant increased risk of experiencing swede midge damage. Research conducted by Rebecca Hallett at the University of Guelph found […]
Despite all this rain, pests are still doing quite well out there, as long as they have something to eat. We had a lot of snow cover this winter which has helped insulate any insects that overwinter and the cool wet soils are helping these soil pests remain active. Some are just waiting for their […]
Now that some of you have been fortunate enough to get some corn in, I am hearing reports and seeing tweets that soybean planting has also started. If there was a year to protect your soybeans with an insecticide seed treatment it is this year. Bean leaf beetles are going to be awfully hungry waiting […]
States to the south of us have been reporting intense black cutworm moth captures over the last few weeks. The continuous storm fronts that keep moving across Ontario could be carrying some of these moths to us. In addition, rain has kept us from getting into the fields to manage the annual weeds (especially chickweed) […]
Anyone interested in participating in this year’s WBC Trap Network in Ontario is asked to contact us so that we can make sure that we have you on our list. If you have replied to an email from us already this month about trapping, then that is great. We’ve got you on the list already […]
Fact or Fiction #2 – “Some trap sites in 2010 were catching 1000s of moths per day!” This is completely false. At least from the data that came in to me from the 471 trap sites being monitored last year. No trap location caught more than 600 moths in ONE WEEK, let alone on a […]
There are a few “facts” about our western bean cutworm research being delivered to growers at various meetings this month that are not correct. I am sure the reps are not intending to mislead growers but I thought it was a good time to get the correct message out there, straight from the horse’s mouth, […]
Some of you may have heard about this one in the news recently. The brown marmorated stink bug, BMSB for short, is the next invasive species that we need to be concerned about. It’s a triple threat since it not only feeds on hort crops but also field crops and overwinters in homes, becoming a […]
2010 Western Bean Cutworm Trap Results for the Great Lakes Region. Numbers indicate the average number of moths accumulated per trap by county for the 2010 season. Shaded counties reported having WBC damage. Purple counties experienced economic damage (spray required or significant feeding found). *click on map to expand* Facts […]
I want to thank my loyal followers for making 2010 such a successful year for the Baute Bug Blog. I will have some pretty cool information on new pest research and management strategies to share that I recently learned about at the annual meeting of the Entomological Society of America. I will write about that […]
Do you take a lot of close up photos of things like insects, disease symptoms, weeds etc but most times end up with nothing more than a blurry, unidentifiable image? Well, here is your chance to fix that! Whether you have a simple point and shoot, a smartphone with camera or the latest SLR, this […]
I am sure we will be talking about western bean cutworm all winter but there are a few key learnings that we gained in 2010 that I thought I would point out: 1. The dark bands behind their heads that we use to identify the larvae are not obvious until their last few stages of […]
It was a great summer. Even though some fields didn’t see a lot of moisture, many had just enough to keep slugs going for most of the season. I often found slugs on soybean or dry bean plants even during the middle of summer. And now with all of the corn scouting we have been […]
An “unprecidented” fall armyworm moth flight catch in Kentucky gives us early warning to a potential threat here. The University of Kentucky is reporting the highest catches recorded in the last 15 years. What does that mean for us? If weather fronts or leftovers of a hurricane pass over Kentucky and push towards us, they […]