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Early season alfalfa pests

There are several pests alfalfa growers should be watching for.

Curtis Rainbolt with BASF says weevils tend to be an early season problem and aphids can be devastating.

“Particularly for those who have blue alfalfa aphids because that not only causes the traditional aphid problems of sticky hay or sooty hay, it injects toxin in the plant so the plant doesn’t grow. So it can have a really devastating impact on your overall yield.”

He tells Brownfield the key to success is scouting.

“See it early (and) get on it as early as you can because the populations can blow up so quickly.”

Rainbolt says spraying a pesticide early can knock populations down and beneficial insects should clean up the rest.