Big spray day at Nashua

This morning, we sprayed foliar insecticides at the Northeast Research Farm near Nashua, Iowa. This is the nation's largest soybean aphid efficacy evaluation, and it's been building ever since it started in 2005. This year, we had 35 treatments at Nashua and 25 treatments at the Northwest Research Farm near Sutherland. We also have a smaller evaluation for Japanese beetle near Ames.

This year, our soybean aphid counts have been almost non-existent. But we are trying to make lemonade out of our research trials. We've been monitoring for spider mites as well, and will have some updated information on efficacy summaries after harvest. We publish all of our soybean pest evaluations in a Yellow Book and post them online. You can find 2005-2011 Yellow Books on our soybean aphid website.

I thought you might like to see our spray crew in action. Enjoy!

Safety first...my lab is very conscientious about PPE!

 We use a backpack sprayer with a 6-row boom to cover our plots. It takes two people to get the job done. 

It took about 4 hours to get all the plots treated this year. It was great weather to spray this year!

Is your "spider sense" tingling for mites this year?

Do things seem a little too quite in your fields this summer? Maybe you've been out looking for plant pests, but haven't seen any major activity? I would strongly encourage everyone to get out and start looking for twospotted spider mites in soybean and corn, especially if your fields are under drought stress. Finding spider mites takes a little extra time, but you don't want to wait until it is too late to make a treatment decision.

Twospotted spider mites are often surrounded in webbing as they build colonies. Heavily infested plants look dirty and covered in webs. Look on lower leaves for initial infestations. Photo by David Cappaert, Michigan State University.

Leaves with heavy stippling is an indication spider mites have been feeding for a long time. Eventually the leaves will turn yellow, then die and fall off the plant prematurely. Photo by Whitney Cranshaw, Colorado State University.

Spider mites have many overlapping generations of adults, nymphs and eggs. Photo by Brian Lang, ISU Field Agronomist.

This photo was taken in Richardson County, Nebraska on 6 July 2012 by Tracy Cameron. He has been monitoring this field for over a month. Spider mites have spread throughout this soybean field and caused discoloration and leaf drop. 

Some of you may remember the dreadful summer of 1988, when hot and dry weather ravaged the midwest. Our field crops suffered from a horrible spider mite outbreak and farmers lost a lot of yield. I hope spider mite infestations don't get that bad this year. But it is important to be proactive with this pest and not wait for a field-wide disaster. Read this ICM News article for management information.