Written collaboratively by Adam Varenhorst, Govinda Shrestha, Kushal Giri, Philip Rozeboom, and Patrick Wagner.
During 2026, we will be producing a new weekly update on sunflower insect pest activity. This information will be attained via a sampling network of eight locations that are in central South Dakota. There are several pests that can attack sunflower throughout the season, and we will be monitoring traps and plants to determine if any of these pests are present and their population abundance.
June 25, 2026
During this week, we observed very minimal populations of insect pests, which is not a surprise as most of the major sunflower insect pests attack the sunflower bud or developing seeds. We positively identified sunflower moths, sunflower maggot adults, redbacked cutworm moths, and sunflower receptacle maggot adult (Table 1). At this time, no action is needed based on the small populations of the observed insect pests.
| Location | Red sunflower seed weevil | Banded sunflower moth | Sunflower Moth | Sunflower Receptacle Maggot | Sunflower Maggot | Redbacked Cutworm Moth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Highmore | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Pierre 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Pierre 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Pierre 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Onida 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Onida 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Onida 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Onida 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
