Erin Hodgson
Many of you know about naturally-occurring entomopathogens in the soil that can kill or suppress insects. Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is a well-known example of a bacteria that kills insects, and was eventually included in plants as a transgenic protein. My Ph.D. student, Eric...
As harvest begins and other plants in the landscape senesce, many insects and arthropods move to find overwintering habitat. Sometimes...
The last few weeks have been full of soybean aphid discussions. Populations have been going up, down and otherwise looked sort of bumpy this summer. Many fields exceeded the economic threshold of 250 per plant and were treated with foliar insecticides in August, particularly in northern Iowa. My...
Corn rootworm adult emergence is underway in Iowa. The three species of rootworm found in Iowa include the northern corn rootworm (NCR), southern corn rootworm (SCR), and western corn rootworm (WCR). Adults of all three species can be found until the first frost. Knowing how to distinguish the...
This week, I've had several calls and emails about aphids feeding on corn. They aren't a persistent pest, but can occasionally be found in Iowa corn. I wrote up a short ICM News article in 2011. Although an economic...
Now that corn silks are out all over Iowa, many people scouting fields will notice a mixture of silk-feeding insects (e.g., corn rootworm, Japanese beetle, grasshoppers, etc.). Sometimes I get asked about how long corn rootworm will emerge. It all comes down to temperature. Like all insects,...
Yesterday during my class at FEEL, I asked participants to go out in the corn and soybean plots and find pests. It didn’t take too long to find a few plants loaded with soybean aphid. It was the largest natural colonies I have seen this summer (potentially exciting for my research but not great...
In case you want to try something a little different, you may be interested in listening to a podcast about field crop pest management. If you are new to podcasting, it is basically an audio file. Some people listen to podcasts on their computer/smart device, in their vehicles while traveling,...
Every summer since 2001, Iowa farmers have to think about soybean aphid. Well, I hope you are thinking about our primary soybean insect pest!
Aphids have been detected throughout the northern counties this year, and some are asking if it will be a "bad" aphid year. I have to say it's too...
Last summer, I posted an ICM News article about how scouting for alfalfa weevils in southern Iowa. It doesn't take too many accumulated degree days for them to start moving around and laying eggs. If you grow or scout...