Month: March 2018

Inversion and Drift Mitigation Workshop to be held April 10 – Cindy Folck

Do you know the weather conditions that contribute to inversions? A workshop on April 10 will focus on tools to help farmers recognize inversions and other weather conditions that affect pesticide drift, for example dicamba. Aaron Wilson, weather specialist and atmospheric scientist, will discuss weather trends and how to recognize inversions. Additionally, workshop attendees will learn about the new tools available through the Ohio Sensitive Crop Registry by Field Watch to increase communication between field crop and specialty crop growers.

The workshop will be April 10, from 10 a.m. to noon. Farmers can attend the workshop in person for no charge at the Ohio 4-H Center on the Ohio State University Columbus campus. Farmers can also attend virtually for no cost. Links for registration for in-person or virtual attendance are available at http://go.osu.edu/IPM. Pesticide applicator recertification credit will only be available at the in-person workshop at the Ohio 4-H Center in Columbus. For more information, contact Cindy Folck at folck.2@osu.edu or 614-247-7898.

Topic Details
Understanding Inversions and Weather Conditions
How to recognize an inversion and other weather conditions that affect applications
Speaker: Aaron Wilson, Weather Specialist & Atmospheric Scientist, OSU Extension, Byrd Polar & Climate Research Center

Using Tools for Applications in the Ohio Sensitive Crop Registry
New tools are available in the sensitive crop registry to meet label requirements, plan herbicide applications, and integrate with spray application equipment
Speaker: Jared Shaffer, Plant Health Inspector, Ohio Department of Agriculture

 Attend virtually: go.osu.edu/IPM
Attend in-person: Ohio 4-H Center, 2201 Fred Taylor Dr., Columbus, 43210
No cost to attend. Pre-registration required for in-person attendees at go.osu.edu/IPM
For more information, contact Cindy Folck, folck.2@osu.edu, 614-247-7898

–Core commercial and private pesticide credits available only at the Columbus in-person location–
–No pesticide credit given for virtual/internet attendees–

The workshop is being supported by the Ohio IPM Program and USDA NIFA 20177000627174.

Hopeful news about stink bug biocontrol

The news about the brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB) has generally been bad over the past few years, as this new invasive pest has continued to expand its range within the USA, causing increasing problems as a pest of fruit, vegetable, and field crops. We know that our native natural enemies have not been able to provide much biological control of BMSB, but there has been hope about potential biological control of BMSB by a tiny wasp that parasitized BMSB eggs in China. The wasp is Trissolcus japonicus, nicknamed the samurai wasp.

USDA entomologists at Newark, Delaware, have been conducting intensive studies of the samurai wasp over the past 10 years with the hope that it could be introduced into the USA for control of BMSB, but thus far its introduction has not been approved. However a significant event occurred in 2014, when the samurai wasp was detected outdoors in Maryland, where it apparently showed up on its own, probably via a parasitized BMSB egg mass present in cargo shipped from Asia. In 2015, the samurai wasp was also detected in Virginia, Delaware, and Washington State. In 2016, it was detected in New Jersey, New York, and Oregon. In 2017, it was detected in Pennsylvania. Once an exotic species like this has been detected, it can be studied and intentionally spread within any State, but it is not allowed to be transported across State lines.

In Ohio, as part of our involvement in a multi-State project on BMSB management, we surveyed for the possible presence of the samurai wasp within Ohio in 2017. To do this, we collected fresh egg masses from our lab colony of BMSB; we deployed the egg masses in the field by clipping them to the underside of leaves, mostly on plants in wooded edges adjacent to fruit and vegetable crops. The egg masses were left outside for 3 days, then brought back to the lab where we observed whether they eventually hatched into stink bugs or if they were parasitized. We deployed 544 egg masses between May and September at several Ohio locations. Over the winter, we have been working our way through these samples, and identifying wasps that emerged from parasitized eggs. This past week, we found that wasps that emerged from two egg masses were identified as the samurai wasp. The two egg masses were deployed in Columbus in early August 2017. This finding that the samurai wasp has spread to Ohio is quite exciting. We plan to do additional surveys in 2018 to determine whether it is present at additional locations within Ohio.

 

by Celeste Welty, Extension Entomologist

Spotted Wing Drosophila Workshop – April 5th

The spotted wing Drosophila (SWD) was first observed in Ohio in 2011.  This tiny fly is now a major pest of small fruit (strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, & blueberries), grapes, and peaches for anyone producing these crops from backyard to commercial scale growers throughout Ohio. What makes this vinegar fly different from other related flies is it attacks healthy uninjured ripening and ripe fruit, not old or damaged fruit like other flies.

So what is the best way to learn how to identify, monitor, and manage SWD? By attending our SWD workshop where these topics will be tackled one by one, including how to use a stereoscope to see these flies up close, how to properly use and service the SWD traps, and how to manage the pest once it arrives at your farm (see flyer below). The meeting has been scheduled from 9am-noon on April 5th at the Washington County Extension office, located at 202 Davis Avenue, Marietta, OH 45750.

Growers from anywhere in Ohio can attend, but due to space limitations, we can only accept the first 20 growers who apply, so be sure to register for this workshop by March 29th. There is a $10 fee to attend the workshop which will be collected at the beginning of the workshop to cover refreshments and snacks. Click on the link below to sign up for the class.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SWDReg18

All attendees will receive one Scentry SWD Trap and 1-2 Scentry SWD lures to help get you started monitoring for this pest, along with vials filled with male and female SWD to use as reference specimens.

If you have any questions about the workshop, please contact Jim Jasinski (jasinski.4@osu.edu) or Marcus McCartney (mccartney.138@osu.edu). This workshop is sponsored by the OSU Dept. of Entomology, Dept. of Extension IPM Program, and USDA NIFA.

 

 

 

 

Corn flea beetle & Stewart’s Wilt Predictions for 2018

Anyone who spent the past winter in Ohio might wonder whether the winter was considered harsh or mild overall, because we saw periods of both extremes in temperature. After a very cold winter, we can expect to not have problems in sweet corn with Stewart’s bacterial wilt, but after a mild winter, we can expect to have problems in sweet corn with Stewart’s bacterial wilt. The severity of the disease is related to survival of the corn flea beetle, which vectors the causal pathogen, and which is adversely affected by cold temperature. Every year we make a prediction about how severe Stewart’s wilt will be by looking at the winter temperatures and using them to calculate flea beetle index values for several Ohio locations. The index is fairly crude but usually does reflect what we see in the field.

The index values for eleven Ohio sites in 2018 range from a low of 83 at Celeryville to a high of 101 at Piketon. The current winter was colder than the previous two winters (2017 and 2016) but not as cold as the two winters before that (2015 and 2014). Most Ohio sites fell in the disease-negligible category this year but there were several sites where wilt predictions are light to moderate, moderate to severe, and severe. Individual index values are shown in the chart below.

 

For a longer-term view, the 2018 values along with values from the previous 30 years are posted at a web site (https://cpb-us-west-2-juc1ugur1qwqqqo4.stackpathdns.com/u.osu.edu/dist/1/8311/files/2016/02/Corn-Flea-BeetleCumul2018r-1rcl18l.pdf ).

These days, most sweet corn hybrid seed is sold with insecticide treatment on the seeds; it can be difficult to find seed that is not treated. These insecticide seed treatments are effective at controlling the corn flea beetle on most hybrids. Systemic insecticide protection is provided on seed that has been commercially by Cruiser, Poncho, or Gaucho. Cruiser contains the active ingredient thiamethoxam (the same AI as in Platinum and Actara) and is made by Syngenta. Poncho contains the active ingredient clothianidin (the same AI as in Belay) and is made by Bayer. Gaucho contains the active ingredient imidacloprid (the same AI as in Admire) and is made by Bayer. Tests done at the University of Illinois when seed treatments were under development showed that incidence of Stewart’s wilt in susceptible varieties was reduced by about 70% by commercial seed treatment, and severity of symptoms was also reduced. Seed treatments are thus not products that alone will control corn flea beetle and Stewarts wilt.

For farms that are not planting insecticide treated seed, the cultural control of disease-resistant varieties should be used. Ratings for over 600 hybrids from Illinois as of 2010 are shown on a website (http://sweetcorn.illinois.edu/HybRxnSum/Hyb-Rxn-Summary-1984-2010.pdf). A few examples of hybrids that are most resistant to Stewart’s wilt are the Ambrosia and Nauset (bicolor se); Sumptuous, Merlin, and Miracle (yellow se); Argent, Celestial, and Denali (white se); Mirai 336BC, Obsession R, and Mirai 350BC (bicolor sh2); and Garrison, Overland, and SummerSweet 7650Y (yellow sh2).

If resistant varieties or commercially treated seed are not planted, it is important to protect seedlings of susceptible varieties from beetle feeding through the 7-leaf stage, especially on farms with a history of problems with this disease. An option is Latitude (imidacloprid plus fungicides), used as a hopper box seed treatment. Another option is systemic soil insecticide, Counter or Thimet, that can be applied to the soil at planting. A final option is to wait until seedlings emerge when they can be sprayed with Sevin, permethrin, or other non-systemic insecticide, but the foliar sprays are not usually as effective as the systemic seed or soil treatments.

-by Celeste Welty, Extension Entomologist