David Owens, Extension Entomologist, owensd@udel.edu
Soybeans
Corn earworm should have largely moved out of soybeans by now. You may still see some stragglers, particularly in late beans. Any double crop beans that have not been treated and are particularly late should still be scouted for CEW. Keep scouting those double crop beans for stink bugs. If a field has both, add up the proportion of each population relative to its threshold. For instance, if I have 1 corn earworm in my net, that would be about 30% threshold. If I have 2 stink bugs, that’s 40% of the stink bug threshold and the field is at 70% threshold for pod feeders.
If you have fields with Dectes stem borer, prioritize them for as timely a harvest as possible.
Small Grains
The wooly worm weather predictor has not failed me yet. This is the first I’ve seen this month, and it is predicting a cool start to the fall followed by a mild winter. Make sure you have an aphid management plan. At the end of the month, I will post threshold reminders. If a field does not have an insecticide seed treatment, scout the field through the beginning of December and if it reaches threshold, (especially if it is highly susceptible to BYDV) a pyrethroid or, for barley, Endigo, will do a good job. If a field is at threshold in the fall and you are planning to treat it with herbicide, that is a good time to take out aphids.
David holds a wooly worm