Bruce Sundeen 0:00
This is the sugarbeet report, bringing you the latest information from NDSU throughout the sugarbeet growing season, now that producers have been getting into the field, what early season pests are also ready to go? Mark Boetel NDSU Extension Entomologist has the latest early season insect information. Mark, the growing season is off to a slow wet start. What are the insect issues we should be concerned about right now,
Mark Boetel 0:27
your early season we're always concerned about springtails wire worms and sometimes cut worms as well. We had problems with springtails and cut worms last year. This year I'm already hearing reports of where we're in problems. So that's something to watch out for. springtails are notoriously a problem in cool wet springs like we're having this year symptomology to watch for with most of those passes uneven or poor seedling emergence, maybe irregular patches of non uniform growth or even plants wilting and dying in those areas. One would want to be inspecting and seeing what's going on.
Bruce Sundeen 1:02
If growers have problems with these pests, what can be done
Mark Botel 1:06
with springtails and wireworms. There's no rescue option. So really, replanting is the only option. With a known problem like that, you'd want to make sure you're going back in with some form of insecticide protection either in the form of a seed treatment, or a AP plant insecticide and then cut worms, you can be keeping an eye out for them. If you're seeing clipped plants and a foliar application usually have a pyrethroid insecticides should do a pretty good job on them.
Bruce Sundeen 1:35
Root maggots for bad and 2021 Can we expect similar problems this year? Yes,
Mark Botel 1:40
unfortunately, 2021 was a exceptionally bad year for the root maggot or I guess it was a good year for them bad year for us. We're trying to grow them that beets. And yeah, in fact, we've been running a systematic monitoring program for quite some time now. 2021 was the worst year for root maggot fly activity in the last 15 years. So we've got a real problem on our hands. And so a lot of fields based on what happened last year are going to be at high risk. And then if you put into the equation also that we have late planted beets this year, those plants are going to be small and very vulnerable to attack from a myriad of insect pests. But certainly, the root maggot would not be an exception to that. I know we're behind average on planting and degree day units and things like that. But really, I believe our plants are going to be farther behind than the root maggots are. So they're going to be small and very susceptible to injury. As far as what to expect this year where we're going to see probably the most problems. I would say in North Dakota, we're looking at Auburn Buxton, Cavalier crystals, Drayton, Grand Forks, Reynolds, Thompson, and St. Thomas. And then on the Minnesota side, we've got Ada, Argyle, klimax, Crookston, East Grand Forks and Kenedy that are looking like they're pretty high risk. Any other spots that maybe grower experienced very high fly activity, and neighboring fields would be at risk this year as well. We're going to be keeping an eye on activity, of course, as we've done for many years, we're collaborating again this year with American crystal, we're going to be monitoring those populations and around 150 fields this year, and those counts that are going to be posted three times per week, every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. As soon as the counts come in, they're posted online, on the NDSU website. Look for that as well. It's very easily found through any search engine online. Just search for NDSU root maggot fee, add the word counts, you're leaving more likely.
Bruce Sundeen 3:46
I know it's early mark. But can you give us a rough idea when peak fly might occur? You're correct.
Mark Botel 3:53
It is very early to do a very precise prediction. So we don't want to stick our necks out too far. But I can say right now we're at about five days behind the average on Remagen degree day King relations. I looked at the extended weather forecast and we're looking at some more cool weather mixed with warm weather, we're not going to accumulate a lot of degree days. So it's looking like the peaks are likely to be probably anywhere from maybe five to even 10 days later than last year easily a week later than normal than average. So we'll have a lot better idea as we move forward through the calendar and then next week, and I'll be posting those kinds of things and all the Ag media including the NDSU crop and test report. Ag radio and the sugar co ops have their texting system also that'll keep people updated.
Bruce Sundeen 4:45
Thanks Mark. Our guest this week has been Mark Boetel NDSU extension entomologist. This is the sugarbeet report, bringing you the latest information from NDSU throughout the sugarbeet growing season
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