White sugarcane aphid, Melanaphis sacchari, in sorghum:  I did not receive any reports of this aphid being found in any new Virginia counties this week.

Brown marmorated stink bug in soybean:  Our scouts reported 11 Virginia counties having threshold levels of BMSB, with highest numbers from Bedford and Orange (9 and 6 BMSB per 2-minute visual inspection, respectively).  First reports for the season came from James City, King George, Culpeper, and Frederick.  Please see the following map:

Kudzu bug in soybean:  Our scouts have not found any Virginia counties with threshold levels of this pest in 2016.  The current map:

Corn earworm/bollworm (Helicoverpa zea) resistance monitoring:  The number of moths surviving the 24-hour exposure to 5 micrograms of cypermethrin in this week’s vial tests was 45.8% (n = 180 moths evaluated).  The seasonal average is 43.4% survival, based on 1,255 moths tested. Black light trap counts:  Corn earworm moth captures dropped slightly from the previous weeks’ counts; brown marmorated stink bug counts were zero across all reporting stations.  Please see the attached tables (pdf document) for more details:  BLT_8_Sep_2016

There was an uptick in the number of corn earworm moths captured in most black light traps this week.  Suffolk was especially high with approximately 38 moths per night.  Brown marmorated stink bug counts were low, ranging from none to 1.1 per night.  Please see the attached pdf file for the data tables:  BLT_1_Sep_2016

This week the Virginia Tech Tidewater AREC entomology program evaluated 298 Helicoverpa zea (=corn earworm/bollworm) moths in the cypermethrin vial tests, with 53.1% surviving the 24-hour exposure to the 5 microgram/vial rate.  This brings the seasonal average to 42.9% (based on 1,075 Suffolk-collected moths).

White sugarcane aphid, Melanaphis sacchari, was found infesting sorghum in New Kent county this week.  Thanks to ANR Agent John Allison for submitting the sample.  Edit to original post:  MIke Arrington and Kayla Babb (Tidewater AREC Entomology) reported finding infestations of M. sacchari in Surry County sorghum, near Bacon’s Castle (this is not on the state map).

Corn earworm/bollworm moth captures in Suffolk averaged 23 per night, but only ranged from < 1 to 4 at other reporting locations this week.  Brown marmorated stink bug was only captured at Warsaw (averaging 1.4 per night).  Please see the attached data tables for more information.  BLT_25_Aug_2016

This week we received reports from ANR Agents of white sugarcane aphid, Melanaphis sacchari, infestations in sorghum in three new Virginia counties:  Charles City, Bedford, and Franklin.  Please see the map for more details.

Helicoverpa zea (corn earworm/bollworm) survival in the adult vial tests averaged 42.1% this week (n=60 moths).  The seasonal average is 39% survival for moths collected from Suffolk, VA (n=777 moths).

This week, we vial-tested 96 H. zea moths (corn earworm/bollworm) captured in Suffolk, VA pheromone traps and had 32.9% survival to the 24-hour exposure to cypermethrin (a pyrethroid insecticide).  The survival rate averaged over the entire season is 38.8%.