As we did in 2008, we have set up moth pheromone traps and blacklight traps on the Eastern Shore of Virginia to monitor important agricultural insect pests including corn earworm, beet armyworm, and stink bugs. For corn earworm, trap catches of 7 or more moths per week indicate the need for intensive scouting of crops for the pests. This insect can damage numerous crops in late summer including sweet corn, tomatoes, cotton, soybeans, green beans, lima beans, and others. For beet armyworm, pheromone bucket traps are the best monitoring tool. Although there is no effective action threshold for moth catch and damage, traps can be used to alert growers to the potential of infestations of this pest in an area. Beet armyworms prefer pigweed to most other crops and the larvae will often be detected in those weeds before attacking most crops. Blacklight traps can be used to monitor the relative intensity of stink bug flights as well. There is no effective threshold level, but again, growers can be alerted to activity.

The trap counts for week ending July 9 were as follows:
Blacklight trap – David Long (Cape Charles) = 8 corn earworm, 1 beet armyworm, 20 brown stink bugs, 0 green stink bugs.
Blacklight trap – Mark Colson (Eastville) = 36 corn earworm, 2 beet armyworm, 10 green stink bugs, 84 brown stink bugs.
Blacklight trap – Painter = 0 moths, 88 green stink bug, 43 brown stink bugs.

Corn earworm Pheromone Traps:
Keller = 0
Tasley = 0
Modesttown = 2
New Church = 0
Horntown = 2
Eastville = 11
Machipongo = 25
Painter = 0
Guilford = 0

Beet armyworm Pheromone traps:
Modestown = 0
Horntown = 0
Machipongo = 13
Painter = 0

Summary, corn earworm and beet armyworm catch was relatively low in all locations, but picking up in lower Northampton County. Brown stink bug catch is relatively high at both Eastville and Painter.