Cereal leaf beetle update; El Nino Watch
Washington Ag Today June 15, 2009 Cereal leaf beetle larvae have been showing up in Walla Walla County. However, Diana Roberts, Washington State University Area Extension Agronomist, says samples collected in Walla Walla and Columbia counties last year showed 95 percent of the larvae were parasitized. Roberts says at that level spraying for the pest should not be necessary and in fact it could harm parasitic insects.
She also says the beetle typically infests the borders of a field more than the interior so don’t just do a windshield check for bugs.
Roberts says Yakima County is the only area she knows of where the parasitic wasp is not yet close to equilibrium with the cereal leaf beetle.
If a producer does spray, Roberts says it is important to leave unsprayed strips where beneficial insects can multiply unharmed, or infestation levels could be worse next year.
The National Weather Service has issued an El Nino Watch.
Rippey: “What that means is that conditions actually favor the development of El Nino.”
USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey. Historically, El Nino has been associated with drier than normal conditions in the Pacific Northwest. Also drought in Australia. Government forecasters in Australia recently put the odds of an El Nino occurring at better than 50 percent.
The National Agricultural Statistics Service reported Friday that the 13 major potato states held 44.8 million hundredweight of potatoes in storage on June 1st, down 11 percent from a year ago but one percent above June 1st of 2007.
I’m Bob Hoff and that’s Washington Ag Today on the Northwest Ag Information Network.
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