Western Bean Cutworm
Western bean cutworms will continue to remain active especially across portions of the Great Lakes region and into southeastern Canada in the next week. The area of most concern this week is in southwest Ontario, Canada where trap counts and damage reports remain pretty widespread, thus a High risk is in place in this region from east of Windsor into the Waterloo and Hamilton areas. Moderate risks also remain in place especially across southwest Nebraska where some moth activity remains present, and also from central/southern lower Michigan northeast into southwest Ontario as well as southeast Ontario into southwest Quebec, Canada. The annual flight is winding down across much of the United States at this time with the exception of in portions of lower Michigan but even there, moth captures should begin declining in the next week to ten days with most of the focus remaining in Canada for the next few weeks. Growers located in the Moderate and High risk areas especially should monitor moth activity and also be observant for egg masses potentially reaching threshold levels. Timing any potential treatments is critical so diligent scouting is recommended as we move through the annual flight for this particular insect.