It's alive!!

It's been a long time since my last post! But it's ALIVE again...

This cool and very wet spring had impacted planting progress and insect development. So the usual field crop suspects haven't started to show up and are especially behind the 2012 emergence schedule. Some of the questions popping up lately have been with soil-dwelling insects and saturated soils. My general thought on this is that eggs can survive in wet soil, but larvae can't for too long. So if they are small and not very mobile (like corn rootworm larvae), they will probably suffocate. Good news if you like to grow corn!

Cool wet growing conditions in May and June do favor slugs. I wrote up a recent ICM News article today about managing these early-season beasts. Unfortunately, no-till or minimal tillage practices are conducive to slug populations.

Slugs can destroy corn and soybean seedlings. Photo by Brian Lang, ISU.

I will try to post more regular updates about other emerging pest activity. Send some of your observations and pictures my way. Thanks for your continued interest in my blog!