As potato planting is on everyone’s mind, control options for wireworms are of importance, particularly since some of those need to be made immediately prior to or at planting.
Below is a document on wireworms and their control in potatoes to assist in the management of this important pest:
Attention Virginia Vegetable Growers:
The Virginia Tech vegetable entomology program, in collaboration with the horticulture sustainable agriculture program, is conducting a survey of vegetable growers to gain valuable insight on current practices and issues as well as better tailor future research needs.
We would greatly appreciate your time and cooperation in taking the online survey accessible through the following link: https://survey.vt.edu/survey/entry.jsp?id=1384452235649. Copy and paste the link into your browser’s URL address bar if the link will not redirect you.
Should you encounter any issue with the survey or wish to receive a copy of the survey for completion, please contact me at: hdoughty@vt.edu
Thank you. Your participation is greatly appreciated.
The 2011 Vegetable Entomology Research Summary is available online at the following link: http://pubs.ext.vt.edu/ENTO/ENTO-1/ENTO-1.html.
Highlighted are Dr. Tom Kuhar’s research trials conducted in 2011 on key vegetable crops and insect pests, including a number of field experiments and laboratory assays on the brown marmorated stink bug.
Blacklight trap catch in Painter has revelealed very little insect activty this week. We are still not seeing the main flight of corn earworm, which is good news for our growers because we they’ve had enough to worry about with drought. The hot dry weather has caused some outbreaks of Spider mites in tomatoes and soybeans. Commercial tomato growers are having particular difficulties managing this pest even with some of the best miticide tools on the market for vegetables (Oberon, Portal, Acramite, and Agrimek). I’ve heard of some tomato fields receiving applications of all of these products on a 5 day rotation and they still have spider mites, particularly in the lower canopy. Some rain could really help.
Click more to find the pheromone trap counts and blacklight trap counts for corn earworm moths, beet armyworm moths and some other pests in Virginia Beach. In 2010 we initiated a monitoring program for these pests at the Hampton Roads AREC and on three commercial farms near Pungo, VA. These data will be posted weekly so that you can monitor the flights of these key insect pests of vegetables and field crops.
In summary corn earworm moths have been flying in the Pungo, VA area since June, but we’ve probably not seen the huge migratory flight that occurs each year around mid July. Beet armyworm moths have yet to appear in traps. Additional information: vabeach-pheromone-trapping-2010-xls
