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Hollow soybean plants signal new pest pressure from Dectes stem borer

The Michigan Soybean Committee is encouraging growers to scout for a new pest found in August.

Research director Mark Seamon tells Brownfield Dectes stem borer was confirmed in Mid-Michigan last month in soybeans.

“This is normally a pest of the southern U.S. or mid part of the country, and this year we found it way up here,” he says. “It’s something that we’re keeping an eye on to figure out is it more widespread than we expected and we just didn’t see it before, or is it something that’s just a fluke this year because of the conditions that we had.”

He says farmers should be on the lookout for larvae damage in fields with standability issues.

“As it’s eating up the stem, the waste from the insect will just fill that whole cavity, so that’s kind of a telltale sign of if the insect was or is if it’s still there,” he says.

Seamon says there are limited control options and a lot of unknowns about how to manage it in northern states.

The checkoff plans on increasing monitoring efforts and encourages growers to report findings to track how widespread the beetle has become.

Brownfield interviewed Seamon during the Michigan Soybean Harvest Equipment Field Day in Charlotte.