Over the years and several times in the last month, I’ve had folks tell me how bad Dectes stem borer hurt their soybean yields. Almost without exception, they describe low yielding spots in their fields and/or weak, dying, and dead plants … and they found a lot of Dectes larvae in the stems. They are convinced the two are related and look at me like I’m crazy when I suggest they are not. Here’s what I know. Don’t forget to look at the photos included at the bottom of this article!

What do we know about the biology and pest status of the Dectes stem borer? Continue reading →

Despite a relatively lack luster moth flight, corn earworms (a.k.a. bollworm or soybean podworm) are showing up in some late maturing soybean fields, and as usual the action in centered in the river bottom. The treatment threshold for corn earworm is based on sweep net sampling and using the table below. Continue reading →