Most farmers are wrapping up planting, and as crops begin emerging it is time to scout fields for damaging insects. This year’s flood conditions during planting have made many crops more vulnerable to disease and insect damage.

Stay on top of your weed, insect and disease concerns by implementing a crop scouting program on your fields. Depending on what crops you planted this year, you may want to take extra notice for specific insects.

Corn:

-Corn borer
-Black cutworm
-Corn rootworm

Soybeans:

-Bean leaf beetle
-Aphids
-Soybean looper

Bean Leaf Beetle
 source: www.ent.iastate.edu 

Canola:

-Cutworms
-Aphids
-Grasshoppers

Cotton:

-Slugs
-Cotton aphids
-Cutworms

Slug
 source: southeastfarmpress.com 

Wheat:

-Aphids
-Brown wheat mite
-Army cutworm
-Hessian fly

Sorghum:

-Sorghum midge
-Sorghum webworm
-Greenbug

Sorghum Midge

 source:entoweb.okstate.edu 

Short windows of opportunity for planting left some farmers without the opportunity to utilize a pre- emergence application. Without the option of getting a jump start on your weed control, it will be even more important for you to focus on a plan for a post-emergence application.

As weeds grow larger, they become more difficult to control. According to the Corn and Soybean Digest article,  5 Corn, Soybean Pests to Scout For Early  , you should be able to determine whether there are seedling emergence issues by the two-leaf stage.

When scouting and applying chemicals, record keeping is a necessary part of your pest management plan. To assist you with record keeping check out these apps available for iPhones, iPads and Android devices.

Farm Logs

Offering a variety of features, Farm Logs allows you to log your field activities including planting and scouting as well as your machine maintenance. Also, scheduling options and inventory management is available through the Farm Logs app. After a 30 day trial, a subscription is required to use all of the features.

eCropScout

This free app allows you to track weeds, insects and diseases on counting sheets. Additionally, you can track your chemical, fertilizer and manure applications with tracking sheets. Then, you can turn your sheets into PDFs. Taking it a step further, you have the ability to add in planting and harvest data.

ScoutPro

Take some of the guessing out of identification with this app that will assist your with weed, insect and diseaseID. Currently ScoutPro is available for corn and soybean growers, but cotton and wheat options are coming soon.

Continual scouting will be a key piece of your pest management plan to ensure your fields don’t become infested.