Insect Pest - Other/Misc

Potato leafhoppers (Empoasca fabae) are a problem in nurseries on trees such as maples, redbud, and goldenraintree.

There have been problems in our vegetable fields with three pests, which include striped cucumber beetles, leafhoppers and twospotted spider mites. I think most of the problems we are having with these three comes from our mild winter as each has had an outbreak population after a mild winter sometime in the last 12 years.

This Timely Viticulture article is on the periodical (17-year) Brood X Cicadas. The content includes the background, life cycle, damage, and the management of the emergence of the Brood X Cicada in the vineyard.

This season keeps with the weird and unusual with reports of grasshoppers causing damage in many different vegetables.

Reports of slug damage to emerging soybean seedlings (Glycine max) have increased in recent years, though their activity is highly variable from field to field, and within a field from year to year. Spring, 2021 weather was both cool and wet, conditions that many slug species find ideal. Slug eggs overwinter in the soil, hatch in the spring, and the juvenile slugs can begin causing damage to crops in just a week’s time after hatching (Hammond et al. 2009).

The cool, wet spring weather we have been experiencing favors slugs, so be on the lookout for slug damage. Slug damage may easily be confused for sap beetle feeding, but management of these pests is very different, so it is important to correctly identify the problem. Both pests can be common in matted row production. Authors: Sankara Ganesh, Maria Cramer, and Kelly Hamby, Department of Entomology, University of Maryland, College Park

Scientists studying Lyme Disease and forest health surmise that prescribed burning could both reduce the tick population and restore certain woodland ecologies.

Recently planted field crops may be at risk from slug damage due to the heavy rains and cooler temperatures we have experienced in the mid-Atlantic from the end of April into the beginning of May. Therefore, the UMD fact sheet “Managing Slugs in Field Crops Using IPM Principles” may be of interest.

August IPM insect scouting tips on soybean, field corn, and sorghum.

Soybean: Scout for the usual defoliators, including bean leaf beetle, Japanese beetle, and caterpillars. The treatment threshold is 15-20% defoliation for bloom to pod fill. Note that defoliation percentages should be based on the entire soybean plant or canopy, not just the top leaves or worst leaves. University of Nebraska Extension has a nice guide for defoliating insects in soybeans (https://croptechcafe.org/defoliating-insects-in-soybeans-thresholds-training-and-tools/). Adult Dectes Stem Borer will be emerging over the next several weeks. Chemical control is not recommended since it would require multiple applications to reduce larval infestations, which is not economical. However, if a high number of adults are found, harvesting that field as soon as it matures will reduce losses associated with lodged plants.