David Owens, Extension Entomologist, owensd@udel.edu
This winter has been mild, and this weather has been very conducive to slug activity. I suspect this is going to be a very active year for slugs. It may be helpful to scout no-till fields, especially those with heavy corn residue. Fields with 1-2 slugs per square foot may have an elevated risk of slug injury. Last year we had an extremely dry April, and some fields were planted and germinated with minimal slug pressure until we caught a big rain at the very end of the month. Fields planted right before that 3-inch rain and germinated after it got hit hard. This year, we are starting off very wet. It will be a challenge to close seed slots in wet, sluggy fields. It might be worth delaying planting in the higher risk fields until the soil is warm enough to promote rapid germination and dry enough to get seed slot closure. Bait treatments are expensive and hard to predict when they are economically justified. Corn can be scouted, and rescue treatments applied, but more often than not, by the time stand damage is being observed in soybean, it is too late to rescue the stand with a bait. At that point, the bait will reduce potential stand damage on any fill-in planting.