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.