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Greater emphasis on tracking dectes stem borer in Illinois soybeans

Research is being done to better track a southern Illinois soybean pest.

University of Illinois Field Crop Entomologist Nick Seiter tells Brownfield there is a growing interest in managing dectes stem borer.

“We are trying to go out and survey fields at the end of the season to see what the levels of stem infestation are for this insect in different parts of the state and see over time if those distributions are changing.”

He says chemical control is possible but challenging, because at the time you can target the adults in early summer, you don’t yet know if there will be an issue in the fall.

“In some cases you can have up to 90% of your plants with stem borer larvae in them, but if you get a good timely harvest, it’s not a problem at all. Other times you might have a lower rate of infestation but you struggle to get things harvested because of the weather and that is when we start to see more lodging.”

He says typically no-till fields south of Interstate 70 see the most infestation but tracking the pest will inform farmers if they are in an area with high populations.

Brownfield interviewed Seiter at Illinois Soybean Association’s Better Beans event in Carbondale on Thursday.