David Owens, Extension Entomologist; owensd@udel.edu
Soybean
Last Friday we visited a double crop field not quite at R6 with significant defoliation occurring caused by soybean looper and numbers along, and only by, the edge coming out to 4 per sweep. Besides some potential for defoliation on late beans that have not yet reached R6, continue monitoring for stink bugs, especially prior to R6 to R6.5.
Small Grains
Small grains will soon be planted in our area. Wheat varieties have varying levels of resistance to BYDV. This disease is spread by aphids like the bird cherry oat aphid and English grain aphid. The disease is not always present, and for many years it was almost entirely absent in our small grain. Management is aimed at reducing the potential for aphids to spread the disease, and especially with secondary spread throughout a field. Neonic seed treatments are an option, and probably more important in barley. Other aphid materials include Sivanto, Transform, and Sefina. Of those, Sivanto and Transform probably have the longest residual activity. In Barley only we can use Endigo which has a neonic in it.