Drill Strip Variety Trial Results

I will be posting the Umatilla County Drill Strip Variety Trial results as I harvest them on this blog. A full summary will go out in my Cereal Newsletter in late August but these numbers will give you a snapshot of what we are seeing in the local harvest so far.

Woodward Farms, near Myrick Elevator, harvested July 17.

Variety Bushel/Ac

1. Skiles 63.1
2. Goetze 68.4
3. ORCF102 63.3
4. Stephens 63.8

Confederated Tribes of Umatilla, south reservation area, harvested July 23.

Variety Bushels/Ac

1. Skiles 57.8
2. Goetze 63.7
3. ORCF 101 63.3
4. ORCF 102 59.1
5. Tubbs 06 60.7
6. Stephens 58.2

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Wheathead armyworm - True or False

As wheat harvest roars into full gear, I continue to moniter the wheathead armyworm traps - not for lack of anything to do, but we are curious if or when we may get a second flight of adult moths. Our plan is to continue to collect weekly through mid September.

Peter Landolt, USDA ARS entomologist, has raised an interesting question about the identification of the armyworm that we have been seeing in our local fields. Silvia Rondon and I will be working closely with Peter to confirm that we have been collecting moths that are not the true wheat head armyworm but a "false" wheathead armyworm.

The two are closely related, but the one that we collected this year Peter has identified as Faraonta terrapicathlis not Faronta diffusa as we previously reported. This photo shows a picture of the moths we have collected earlier this summer. Several other moth species have been collected, and we are making a collection of the moths, and other insects attracted to our traps.

Wheathead armyworm counts virtually nonexistent

Wheathead armyworm counts have been virtually nonexistent for the past two weeks, both as adult moths and larvae. Reports from Washington State are similar. There is no concrete answer to why populations of this insect pest have nose-dived this year compared to 2008 and 2007.

The only insects that I found today were some ladybugs in a nearby spring wheat field.

Harvest is expected to get underway in the next 7-10 days in the area as the winter wheat fields are turning golden, and wheat kernels are past the dough stage in development.

If anyone finds wheathead armyworms on their wheat, please contact me as we are still trying to collect larvae for identification and research purposes!

Wheathead armyworm counts low

Brrrr....today it was cold and windy here in eastern Oregon, as I visited the wheathead armyworm traps for my weekly collection. There was only one moth in all the traps, so we have a continuing trend of very low moth counts for the third week in a row. Perhaps this is the year that things will take a turn for the better!

We also did sweeping with an insect net, looking for armyworm larvae. Only 1-2 larvae per 10 sweeps were found.
This monitoring program will continue as we are now on the countdown toward harvest. Hopefully, the low numbers will continue!

Wheathead armyworms emerging

Yesterday's collection from the wheathead armyworm survey traps found zero (0) moths. As expected the larvae are starting to emerge, and are still relatively small.

Fields sweeping (10 - 180 degree sweeps) with an insect net resulted in finding some wheathead armyworm larvae at each site:

• Site 1 - 1 armyworm
• Site 2 - (in an adjacent field) 20 armyworms
• Site 3 - 2 armyworms

Here are a few tips for scouting:

1. Larva fed at night, and drop to the ground during the day, so scout in the late evening or early morning for the most accurate results,
2. Scout at various locations throughout the field, as populations are often higher along the field edges,
3. Larva will vary in color from greenish to cream and have white and brown stripes down the length of their bodies.

We do not have any solid research to show at what level populations becomes economical to treat with insecticides. There are various insecticides available with pre-harvest intervals ranging from 30 days to a little as 7 days. Read and follow label directions before selecting an insecticide, and/or applying.

In other wheat-growing states, this pest has not been a significant problem, nor stayed around long enough to develop any research to establish treatment thresholds. We are now into our third year of seeing this pest, and hope that it will not become a significant problem beyond this localized outbreak. Field monitoring and scouting remain our best option for making good management decisions.

Wheathead moth counts for June 3- June 10

The numbers of moths have dropped dramatically over the last week, June 3 - June 10. Last week I reported in moths/day. With moth numbers at less than 1/day, I will just give the total numbers.
Total moth counts over the 8 days:

• Site 1 - 1 moth
  
• Site 2 - 3 moths
  
• Site 3 - 6 moths

We are not sure if we are dealing with one flight or more. We will continue to collect weekly up to mid July.

Armyworm survey shows lower moth counts

I collected from the wheathead armyworm traps yesterday in the Helix area. There were very few moths in any of the traps this week. I will post the counts as soon as the numbers are confirmed by our entomologist, Silvia Rondon.
Last week's numbers were

• Site # 1 near Myrick Rd - 19/day;
  
• Site # 2 off Harper Rd - 12/day; and
  
• Site 3 on field road 1 mile west of Helix - 13/day.
  

These counts were in the pheromone traps. The traps using a different attractant were low at 3 per trap total.
Under our current weather conditions, we expect to see larva emerging over the next week. If anyone finds larva when scouting their fields please post your findings to the blog or call my office with the information.
I will be collecting larva to rear again this year as there are questions emerging about if there are two species present and we hope to clarify that issue this season.