By Tracy Turner
Ohio soybean growers will find there is a high likelihood that their crops might experience soybean aphids in 2015 after the pests were found in many of the state’s fields this year, with some growers reporting that the insects had reached numbers large enough to cause economic damage.
That’s according to Andy Michel, an Ohio State University Extension entomologist, who wrote in a recent C.O.R.N. newsletter posting that conditions seem to be setting up for soybean aphids to be present in Ohio soybean fields next year.
Not only were the pests detected in most areas this year, soybean aphids were found in central parts of Ohio rather than in northern parts of the state where they typically would be detected, wrote Michel, who also has an appointment with the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center.
OSU Extension and OARDC are the statewide outreach and research arms, respectively, of the college.
A native of Asia, the soybean aphid was first detected in Ohio in 2001. Since then, Ohio soybean growers have dealt with outbreaks of the insect every other year, he wrote.
“While it is tough to say if this ‘officially’ broke the every other year pattern, more important is what might happen next year,” he wrote in the posting. “Even without the 2014 observations, there would be a high likelihood of soybean aphids in 2015 based on the historical pattern.”
Another indicator of the potential for soybean aphids next year is that observers have started seeing the pests on buckthorn, which is the overwintering host plant for soybean aphids, Michel wrote.
More information on soybean aphid, including management tips, can be found on an OSU Extension fact sheet co-written by Michel at http://ohioline.osu.edu/ent-fact/pdf/0037.pdf.
Source : purdue.edu