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 […]
As mentioned yesterday, last week trap catches shot up significantly. I’ve included a graph to show just how big of a flight we are experiencing this year compared to previous years. Ontario 2009 2010 2011 Averages I’ve also included an updated graph showing the counties that have been catching the highest average number moths per […]
If you can believe it, we have not reached WBC peak moth flight yet! Trap counts continue to climb and some participants are having a hard time counting them all. During this intense period, I do recommend that our trap participants check their traps more than once a week, simply to keep on top of […]
Some scouts are starting to notice tiny WBC larvae that have hatched that crawling in the whorl or making their way down to the ear of the plants. To help you know whether they are WBC larvae, here are some photos. You can click on them to enlarge them. They start out with spots along […]
Trap counts sent in to the network this week from last week’s moth catches indicate that moth flight increased dramatically. And from tweets on Twitter and emails coming in from participants, even higher numbers are being caught this week in some traps. So we haven’t quite reached peak moth flight yet here in Ontario. The […]
Many questions are starting to come in regarding WBC. Just to help clarify what the action thresholds for western bean cutworm are, here is a quick summary: In Corn: Scout 10 plants in a row in 10 areas of the field. In non-Bt corn or transgenic corn that does not provide any protection against WBC […]
There is a lot happening out there. I am sure I am not aware of half of the infestations that are going on but at least I will report on what I do know. Western bean cutworm – Hot spot egg mass locations continue to be in the Bothwell area with now fields in the […]
There is a bit of confusion out there amongst our trap participants who are trying to identify their catches. Western bean cutworm (WBC) has a few look a likes. Plus Large Yellow Underwing moths are flying around this year which is confusing matters. Pay extra attention to the details that are on the wings. Here […]
A few of our WBC trap network participants reported catching moths in their traps last week. This is a week later than last year. Moths were found at a few trap locations scattered across the province. And more reports are coming in this week from those out checking traps during this weeks’ travels. This could […]
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 […]
Since my blog entry last week where I mentioned that we hadn’t found WBC feeding in dry beans yet, my crew as well as reps who have been sending photos in have found WBC pod feeding in dry bean fields at a few locations across the province. To date, sites known to have WBC pod […]
I’ve been in a lot of dry bean fields this week, mainly in Huron County. And I will admit that in a few fields, it was tough to sort out what was causing the damage. But so far, there are only one or two sites out of all of the ones I scouted that have […]