News

True army worms & other pests out in force

An entomologist says what started out as a reasonably-pest free growing season is quickly changing.

Emily Bick with the University of Wisconsin says this week, true army worms are back, and they’re being reported all over Wisconsin.

Bick says farmers need to scout fields now because controlling army worms is all about timing. “This one is really, really critical because if you don’t get an insecticide on there in time, you can miss your window. Basically, all the juveniles need to be less than three-fourths of an inch in order to be able to effectively manage them with an insecticide, and they can do a heck of a lot of damage.”

Bick says her scouting and reports from around Wisconsin show most of the army worms are in the juvenile larvae stage, so farmers need to see if there are enough of them to reach the threshold for applying insecticides. “You want to see that 25% of that stand has two or more juveniles or larvae per plant, or if you find 75% of your stand has one or more larvae per plant, that is the right time to go out for a chemical treatment.”

Bick says western bean cutworm flights are very heavy now, and farmers also need to scout for corn earworm and European corn borer.  She says aphid counts are lower than expected now, but Japanese beetles are being found nearly everywhere.  Soybean gall midge has never been found in Wisconsin, but Bick is watching for that since bordering Dakota County, Minnesota has reports of the pest.

AUDIO: Entomologist and University of Wisconsin professor Emily Bick discusses crop pest information with Brownfield’s Larry Lee.