Joanne Whalen, Extension IPM Specialist; jwhalen@udel.edu
Alfalfa
Continue to sample for potato leafhoppers on a weekly basis. We continue to find adults and nymphs in fields. Although both life stages can damage alfalfa, the nymphs can cause damage very quickly. Once plants are yellow, yield loss has already occurred. The treatment thresholds are 20 per 100 sweeps on alfalfa 3 inches or less in height, 50 per 100 sweeps in 4-6 inch tall alfalfa and 100 per 100 sweeps in 7-11 inch tall alfalfa.
Small Grains
We continue to find barley and wheat fields that were not treated with economic levels of armyworms. If you have not treated, be sure to sample fields and check all labels for the days between applications and harvest (pre-harvest interval).
Soybeans
Be sure to sample seedling stage beans for bean leaf beetles, grasshoppers, and thrips.
(I) Grasshoppers: Population levels are starting to increase in the earliest emerged no-till full season fields. As barley is harvested and soybeans are planted, these fields will be especially susceptible to attack by grasshoppers which can cause stand loss. If stand reductions are occurring from plant emergence to the second trifoliate, a treatment should be applied. Although no precise thresholds are available, a treatment maybe needed if you find one grasshopper per sweep and 30% defoliation from plant emergence through the pre-bloom stage.
(II) Bean Leaf Beetle: As a general guideline, a treatment may be needed for bean leaf beetle if you observe a 20 – 25% stand reduction and/or 2 beetles per plant from cotyledon to the second trifoliate stages. These treatment thresholds should be reduced if bean pod mottle virus is present in your area or you suspected virus the previous season.
(III) Thrips: Thrips can feed and reproduce on the leaves and buds of soybean seedlings. Their feeding creates bleached-out lesions along the leaf veins and gives a silvery/bronzed appearance to the leaf surface when damage is severe. These insects are very small (less than a tenth of an inch) and are torpedo shaped. While thrips always occur on seedling stage soybeans, it is only during outbreak years that they cause concern. In particular, during dry weather and on earlier planted full-season soybeans, thrips populations can explode when plants are growing slowly. Under these circumstances thrips injury will occasionally kill seedlings. Other stressors, such as nutrient deficiencies and herbicide injury, can add to thrips damage and cause plant loss. Yellowing can occur from thrips but there are also a number of other factors that can cause yellowing so it is important to scout fields to identify what is causing the yellowing. Although no precise thresholds are available, as a general guideline, treatment may be needed if you find 4-8 thrips per leaflet and plant damage is observed.