Tracey Baute September 16, 2015 2438 Comments Off on Neonics and What Corn and Soybean Growers Need to Know NowAs of July 1, 2015, new requirements for buying and using neonicotinoid-treated corn and/or soybean seed are being phased in to allow growers to adapt to new requirements. This fall (2015) – to prepare for the 2016 growing season Required for Seed Order To purchase and plant 50% or less of your total grain corn or total soybean crop for a farm operation with a neonicotinoid…
Tracey Baute August 6, 2015 2177 Comments Off on Western Bean Cutworm – Still Scout Corn and Now Dry Beans TooTrap counts are still quite high this week in Ontario which indicates that peak flight hasn’t plateaued yet. So there is likely still lots of egg laying happening. Moths will prefer to lay eggs in later planted corn that is still in pre to early tassel stages or will find dry bean fields nearby. Just because a trap is catching…
Lots of people have been sending in pics of eggs, nymphs or adult stink bugs and asking which stink bug it is. So I thought I’d try to help sort them out for you. There are predatory stink bugs and then there are plant feeding stink bugs. It is important to make sure you can ID the good ones from…
With the exception of the last few hot days, these slightly cooler than norm July temps are ideal for soybean aphid development. They can double their populations in a matter of days when temperatures are moderate. There haven’t been many reports of threshold levels being found in the fields so I am a little worried that not everyone is taking…
A few tweets, text messages and reports from our scouts have indicated that WBC egg masses are being found in corn this week. The next two to three weeks are key for scouting and managing WBC for the bulk of the corn crop. Though the typical hot spots (eg. Bothwell area) are more prone to significant populations, last year taught…
Author: Jen Bruggeman, Research Assistant, University of Guelph Ridgetown Campus Western Bean Cutworm traps have been up in Ontario for approximately 5 weeks, with nil to low catches being reported until now. Just this week we have started to see an increase in moth captures, due to our resident population starting to emerge from the soil and due to the…
First flower open on soybeans means that they have reached the R1 stage. From this stage until the start of R6, where the pods on the top few nodes of the plant are filled with a swollen seed, soybean aphid thresholds kick in. A few fields were colonized earlier this spring but for the most part those populations have remained…
Two pests that are starting to appear in Ontario fields include cereal leaf beetle and alfalfa weevil. Cereal leaf beetle: Both adults and larvae can cause damage by chewing long strips of tissue between the leaf veins, though most of the damage is done by the larvae in June. The larvae look somewhat like slugs or a drop of black…
Some US states to our south have been reporting high numbers of black cutworm moths in their pheromone traps and are starting to see some black cutworm injury in newly emerging corn fields. These moths are carried into Ontario via storm fronts. Once they arrive the adult moths look for weedy patches in fields to lay their eggs on. The…
Tracey Baute May 1, 2015 1131 Comments Off on Planting Neonic Treated Corn or Soys? Don’t Forget the Fluency AgentThose planting neonicotinoid treated corn or soybean seed with a vacuum planter that requires a seed flow lubricant MUST use Fluency Agent. Talc or graphite are not permitted. Exceptions include: 1. planters that don’t need seed flow lubricant (i.e. you don’t have to start using fluency agent if you didn’t use graphite or talc in the past) 2. finger pickup…
There is clearly a renewed interest in trapping for Western bean cutworm (WBC) in 2015. This is understandable, given that WBC caught us off guard in 2014 with ear damage being reported across much of Ontario, beyond our typical hot spot areas. Sign up to the Ontario WBC Trap Network: We will be mapping trap captures again this year. Those…
Let’s start on a positive note. We did not find any brown marmorated stink bugs (BMSB) during our corn or soybean field survey this year. Though the eager summer students are always disappointed that they come back each year with nothing to show for their training and scouting efforts, I am always relieved. The not-so-great news is that they are…
Tracey Baute October 31, 2014 1660 Comments Off on Do You Need to Use Insecticide-Treated Corn and Soybean Seed?Many Ontario Fields Don’t Need Neonicotinoid Treated Seeds Assess Your Risk for Early Season Insect Damage Fill out the Pest Evaluation Checklist for Corn or Soybean for your farm at ontario.ca/bx1n Use this Pest Evaluation Checklist to target the use of insecticide seed treatments on corn and soybean seed for fields with identified risks. Use the Guide to Early…
Tracey Baute September 22, 2014 2377 Comments Off on Scout for Western Bean Cutworm and Ear Mould NowAuthor: Jocelyn Smith, University of Guelph Ridgetown Campus “Check your fields for WBC and ear rots now and consider harvesting early to stop mould growth. Adjust your combine to discard lightweight mouldy kernels and dry mouldy corn as soon as possible.” If you had trouble finding Western bean cutworm (WBC) egg masses when scouting back in late July and early…
Tracey Baute July 23, 2014 2148 Comments Off on Western Bean Cutworm Reaching Threshold in Some FieldsEither our own resident WBC populations did fine over the winter or the recent storm fronts brought in the bunch of moths from the US or a combination of the two. But reports are coming in that fields between Thamesville and Bothwell and near Rodney have reached threshold, well, sort of. What is messing up everyone’s ability to determine which…