Western bean cutworms continue their annual emergence across the usual “hot spot” areas for this particular insect. Peak or near peak flight is already occurring in portions of far northern Kansas into southern Nebraska where a High risk is now in place. Continued increases are also noted west, north, and east of the High risk area, and Moderate risks extend further into both states and also reach into far northeast Colorado by the weekend. Low risks for more isolated flights and potential issues exist across far western Iowa and extreme northwest Missouri, as well, by this weekend. Further east, in the secondary hot spot region in and surrounding the Great Lakes, Low risks continue from Wisconsin east into Indiana, Ohio, central and southern lower Michigan, and further east into southern Ontario, Canada. This area is further behind in both heat unit accumulations and crop stage, but we did introduce a Moderate risk by later in the weekend but especially next week across portions of Indiana, Ohio, southern lower Michigan, and also into central/southern Wisconsin as we anticipate the annual flight to increase in these areas first before spreading north and east in time later this month. Growers located in either risk area should be monitoring traps but also regularly scouting fields at this point as the western bean cutworm treatment window is rather narrow for greatest effectiveness.