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Today in this podcast, Matt and Erin talk about a new publication summarizing insecticide evaluations for soybean aphid. The Yellow Book for soybean aphid starting in 2005 in response to a growing demand to manage this invasive pest. Matt was up for the challenge and passed the torch to Erin in 2009. Now the evaluations are at 2 ISU Research Farms and include 25+ treatments annually. You can access all the Yellow Books FREE on their lab website: http://www.ent.iastate.edu/soybeanresearch/content/extension. 

To start this podcast, Erin recaps current growing degree days in Iowa for 2016 and how they are really different than in 2014. Visit her blog post to see some cool graphs: bit.ly/1nO0ZDd. Matt recently attended a soybean entomology working group meeting and recapped some of the highlights. Specifically, he talked about pesticide use comparisons around the U.S. and the possible introduction of Bt soybean in the U.S. market. 

Bad weather and superstition won't keep Matt and Erin from podcasting today. Erin shares current planting progress for Iowa (80% corn and 30% soybean) according to NASS and also talks about black cutworm injury in seedlings. Early-season clinics are starting up next week at FEEL, where she will help new agronomists learn about scouting for seedling pests. Finally, they talk about potentially podcasting on the road for the north central branch meeting in Cleveland next month.

Today, Matt and Erin have so much to talk about in this episode. The multiple phone calls and people stopping by Erin's office can't stop the podcast. Lab members found a few soybean aphids in central and northeast Iowa. This is not too surprising because a few soybean aphids can usually be found in June. Populations are very low, but something to note as the field season continues.

The first soybean aphids of the year were found in northeastern Iowa. Photo by Greg VanNostrand. 

The warm winter was helpful to those insects trying to overwinter in Iowa, particularly for bean leaf beetle. For the other crop in Iowa, corn rootworm egg hatch is peaking, stalk borers are moving to corn, and European corn borer egg hatch is also happening now. Then the conversation turned to millipedes - not a typical field crop pest. They talk about field conditions conducive to millipede injury, in addition to other emerging pests like slugs, snails and isopods. Finally, Matt reminded us Pollinator Fest is coming up at Reiman Gardens in Ames on June 25. 

Random fact: Millipedes are arthropods within the class Diplopoda. They are distant relatives to insects and arachnids. People who study millipedes are called diplopodologists. 

Millipede. Photo by David Cappaert, www.ipmimages.org.

Don't drought this episode was a good one. Matt shares an update on the Iowa drought and encourages people to use the U.S. Drought Monitor as a tool to measure landscape moisture levels. Matt and Erin transition and talk about pest activity around the state, starting with twospotted spider mite. Erin wrote a recent ICM News article that talks about scouting and managing this pest that favors hot and dry conditions. Spider mites can be first detected around field perimeters and then eventually infest the field interior. Discoloration, webbing and stunted plants are often the result of heavy spider mite feeding. Erin mentioned a new miticide, AgriMek, that has promise for suppressing mites in corn and soybean; find the label here. The conversation switched gears to talk about some corn silk clipping pests, like Japanese beetle and corn rootworm adults. Scouting to determine pest densities and potential interference with pollination is important. Learn more about Japanese beetle ID, scouting and management with an ICM News article. 

Twospotted spider mite. Photo by Frank Peairs, www.ipmimages.org.

Bean leaf beetle. Photo by Marlin Rice.