By Kelley Tilmon and Andy Michel,OSU Extension, Field Crop Entomologists
Edited by Mark Badertscher, OSU Extension, Hardin County.
HARDIN COUNTY–You know how at the end of the horror movie there’s always some hint that the monster may come back? We don’t know if this year will be “Soybean Aphid 11: The Return,” but there are some hints that you might want to pay attention to your beans and keep an eye out for this pest. We have been hearing reports of unusually high numbers of various aphid species on various types of plants–fruits, vegetables, weeds.
This trend appears to be regional and is being detected in other states as well. Why? It’s probably due to the unusual late spring/early summer weather which was very dry. Wetness is the enemy of aphids because it creates conditions that favor the insect-killing fungi that help keep them in check. We suspect that aphids got off to a great (great for them) start early this season because of the dry conditions, and now they’re unusually abundant in many settings.
Soybean aphid never really went entirely away. When we look hard enough for research purposes, we can usually find a few here and there. While we don’t know if we will see soybean aphid problems in soybean this season, the general happiness of other aphid species this summer suggests that vigilance is appropriate.
