This Week’s Insect Activity

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 […]

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Late Planted Soys at Risk of Soybean Aphids?

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 […]

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Aphids Coming and Going

I have had a few calls from some reps and growers who have been amazed and delighted and some who have been frustrated and frazzled this week.  But I’m in it with you, believe me.  Soybean aphids seem to be very active right now, developing winged generations and have been moving from one field to another for […]

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When can we stop scouting for aphids

The current threshold of 250 aphids per plant and increasing should be followed to the end of the R5 stage of soybeans.    The R5 stage is known as the “Beginning Seed” stage, when the pods on the top 4 nodes of the plant have a tiny seed developing inside them.  Once the soybeans start to […]

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Spray the Buggers and Be Done With Them?

I have been getting more calls this week with people wanting to spray the aphids just to take care of them..even if they are not at threshold.  Most realize that the natural enemies are going to get killed but they also assume 100% kill of the aphids and struggle to understand how the aphids can […]

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Scouting for Soybean Aphids is Advised

A recent summer migration of soybean aphids in Ontario has resulted in many new fields having a fair number of aphids in them now.  Fields that were scouted a week or two ago and were found to have very few aphids could now be closer to threshold than you think.  Scouting is advised.  Scout Cruiser […]

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Spidermites, Aphids and Western Bean Cutworm

SPIDERMITES: I have a sneaking suspicion that spidermites are making their way into those fields that haven’t had rain in a while.  We have had situations in the past where not only have they popped up in soybeans and were being disregarded as “drought stress” symptoms but also in seed corn, especially around or just after […]

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To Spray or Not to Spray the Aphids

A lot of calls are coming in this week from growers and reps who have fields that are hovering around the 250 aphids per plant range.  With the poor weather and wheat harvest some are anxious to make the call if they need to spray.  In fact, there are some rumours out there that some are spraying […]

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