Our basic project objectives are to:
Promote the use of the IPM practice of scouting and determining thresholds for making Western Corn Rootworm Management decisions for controlling the pest in first-year corn. Winter educational programs, field days, and private pesticide applicator recertification programs will be the primary delivery methods.
Evaluate the previously determined economic thresholds for WCR adults in soybean. Current data indicates that when using the Pherocon AM yellow sticky traps, per week samples that average more than 35 beetles per trap on the 6 traps per field are significant and indicate that economic levels of corn rootworm larvae in the following year’s corn field are likely to exist. Corn roots from both treated and untreated areas of fields will be evaluated in the next year’s corn crop.
Develop educational materials for use by producers and agri-business. These materials are likely to include Extension Publications, a project web-site, and Private Pesticide Applicator Training material.
Monitor the potential movement of the WCR adults associated with egg-laying in soybean into other areas of the state.
The study will begin during the last full
week of July. At each field, cooperators will place 6 Pherocon AM® (unbaited)
yellow sticky traps on stakes that are placed at least 100 paces apart in a
soybean field. Each week for the next six weeks, or until thresholds are
reached, traps will be removed from the field and replaced with fresh traps.
WCR beetles will be counted on each trap and the data recorded. The economic
threshold for treating corn with a soil insecticide the following year is 5
beetles per trap per day or 210 beetles per field (95% of the corn fields
reached economic root damage the following year). If a field surpasses this
threshold prior to the conclusion of the six week period, field monitoring
will stop. Data will be analyzed and compiled by project principal
investigators.
In the second year of the study, cooperators will plant corn into the field
monitored in the previous year. Cooperators will ultimately decide whether or
not they will use a soil rootworm insecticide; however, each field will have
check areas to evaluate root rating differences between corn grown in rows
with a recommended soil rootworm insecticide versus corn planted without an
insecticide. Educators will collect root samples and submit them to Purdue
University Entomologists for analysis and root rating determinations. Growers
will harvest and weigh separately the two different treatments’ yields. Also
in the second year, cooperators will expand the study to include additional
fields. Selected soybean fields will be sampled in a similar method as in year
one and data collected.
In year three, the study will be repeated in each of the fields selected by
the cooperator.
Additionally, data will be collected at each of the two Purdue Farm Research
sites included in the study. These sites will also serve as demonstration
plots for field days and Private Applicator Recertification Programs.
Data collected each year will be analyzed, published, and utilized throughout
the season at grower meetings including PARP, Certified Crop Advisor Training,
and Commercial Pesticide Applicator training. A power point educational
training program will be developed concerning the project, data, and procedure
for monitoring WCR adults in soybean. This program will be made available to
Extension Educators in all 92 counties, as well as Extension Specialists on
campus.
