Soybean Aphids: We are seeing an increase in soybean aphid numbers in the same areas we reported last week. I heard today that populations were building in one new area, on our Eastern Shore. Aphid populations are often mixed with corn earworms and stink bugs and although none are at threshold, the combination is making growers nervous. Several have applied insecticides. We are continuing our aphid survey of about 30-40 fields until mid September (when the funds run out). We will have an update on the situation when our scout reports in this Friday.
Corn Earworms: Corn earworms are still showing up in a lot of fields, but threshold levels are spotty. Moths are flying and some areas are still reporting fairly high numbers. Many soybean fields, mostly the double crop fields, are still susceptible to worm damage and will be for at least three more weeks. We are encouraging growers to continue scouting. Attached is a one page handout with ‘bullet points’ regarding the current corn earworm situation.
Stink Bugs: We are finding very large stink bug populations in a few fields, and a few in most. Of the fields we are surveying, the greatest majority are green stink bugs. Stink bugs seem to ‘pile’ up in soybean fields as the summer progresses, and into the early fall weeks. We are doing some field cage studies to try to sort out what these bugs are doing to bean yields and seed quality. For now, we should abide by the thresholds. On a positive note, our field trials over the last few years have shown that standard pyrethroids provided excellent control of green stink bugs.

Additional information: herbert-cew-25-aug-2009-doc