Insect & Pests
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Overwintering S.D. Bean Leaf Beetles: 2017 predicted mortality
The overwintering generation of bean leaf beetle adults emerge in the spring and can cause serious defoliation injury to seedling soybean plants. However, the abundance of overwintering bean leaf beetles is negatively affected when the air temperatures get too cold. Therefore, an estimate of the emerging populations can be made based on how cold the winter was.

Soybean Production: Cost-effective pest management practices
Chemicals were one of the most expensive individual costs in soybean production, behind only to seed in the non-land cost category. The average cash-rent soybean production farms incurred a crop chemical cost of $39/ac in 2015, an 88% increase from 2010.

New Multi-State Extension Publication: Managing Insecticide-Resistant Soybean Aphids
The first pyrethroid resistant soybean aphids were reported in Minnesota in 2015. Since then, pyrethroid resistant soybean aphids have been reported in Iowa, North Dakota, and South Dakota. In an effort to address resistance, researchers from those states have put together a new extension publication.

Test Your Soil for the Soybean Cyst Nematode (SCN) This Spring
The soybean cyst nematode (SCN) is a major soybean pathogen that causes significant yield loss. Fields that were not tested for SCN last year can still be sampled this spring to determine the presence of SCN or SCN population changes if testing was done in the past.

Soybean Gall Midge: What We Know So Far
In 2018, South Dakota soybean farmers were faced with a new soybean insect pest. What started with dying field borders ultimately ended with yield losses throughout many fields on the Eastern side of the state. We determined that the pest in question was the soybean gall midge.

Scout Soybeans for Bean Leaf Beetle Feeding
We are receiving numerous reports and also observing very large bean leaf beetle populations this year. As a result, there is also a lot of concern about soybean defoliation due to the emergence and subsequent feeding by the overwintering adult population.

Watch for Bean Leaf Beetles
Some soybean in South Dakota has emerged and it is already being attacked by early-season bean leaf beetles. So far, observations of adult bean leaf beetles emerging from fields and defoliation of soybean have been in Southeastern South Dakota.

Soybean Gall Midge: It’s a New Species!
Researchers recently determined that the soybean gall midge, discovered in South Dakota in 2015, is actually a previously undocumented species. The origin of the new species, Resseliella maxima Gagné, is still unknown.

2019 South Dakota Overwintering Bean Leaf Beetle Predicted Mortality
Overwintering bean leaf beetle adults will soon start emerging as they do each spring. This overwintering generation is capable of causing serious defoliation injury to seedling soybean plants.

Soybean Gall Midge Larvae Found in South Dakota
Although we have yet to capture any adult soybean gall midges, the reports and observations of soybean gall midge larvae in soybean are pouring in this week. In Clay and Union counties, infested soybeans are now showing signs, with plants beginning to wilt and die in some cases.