| Dave Jones, OSU Extension, Allen County | Jim Lopshire, OSU Extension, Paulding County |
| Steve Bartels, OSU Extension, Butler County | Glen Arnold, OSU Extension, Putnam County |
| Barry Ward, OSU Extension, Champaign County | Mark Koenig, OSU Extension, Sandusky County |
| Steve Prochaska, OSU Extension, Crawford County | Clark Hutson, OSU Extension, Seneca County |
| Bruce Clevenger, OSU Extension, Defiance County | Roger Bender, OSU Extension, Shelby County |
| Greg Lebarge, OSU Extension, Fulton County | Andy Kleinschmidt & Gary Prill, OSU Extension, Van Wert County |
| Alan Sundermeier, OSU Extension, Wood County | Florian Chirra, OSU Extension, Williams County |
| Joe Beiler, OSU Extension, Mercer County | Craig Everett, OSU Extension, Wood County |
| Steve Ruhl, OSU Extension, Morrow County |
Ohio State University Extension personnel in 2002 continued to monitor for first year corn rootworm (FYCR) which is a biotype of the western corn rootworm (WCR) that deposits eggs in soybean fields that can damage corn planted in that field the next year. This is the fifth year that monitoring has occurred. The program used Pherocon AM yellow sticky traps which are placed in soybean fields (at least 4 traps per field) on a biweekly schedule from mid-July through August to monitor adult rootworm activity. Sixty-four fields in 20 counties were trapped with Pheroncon AM traps in 2002. All of the counties changed traps on a biweekly schedule except Van Wert which changed their traps on a weekly schedule.
A summary of the average catches of WCR adults per trap per day from the 2002 growing season is presented in Table 1. The catch for a given field represents the average catch of adult WCR from traps over a six week period. The average catch for a county represents the total number of fields monitored in a given county. Even though the number of fields sampled is small, it gives an indication of the WCR populations in soybeans in 2002 as compared with previous years.
Beetle numbers on traps were higher in all counties in 2002 as compared with previous years. Collection of 2 or more WCR beetles per trap per day in a soybean field is presumed to indicate a potential for economic injury at a root rating of 3 if corn is planted the following year. Based on this fact, only 1 field in Van Wert County exceeded the 2 beetles per trap per day. There were several fields in Van Wert, Allen, Mercer and Defiance Counties that had greater than 1 beetle per trap per day. Fields in the other counties had less than 1 beetle per trap per day.
A soil insecticide treatment for FYCR may be warranted if WCR beetle numbers per trap per day are greater than 2 or more beetles over a six week period. If a field was not trapped in 2002 but observations in July and August found a large number of WCR beetles in the fields at that time, then a soil insecticide might be justified. Conversely, if WCR were not observed in soybeans in high numbers in July and August then a soil insecticide treatment in 2003 probably cannot be justified.
If soil insecticides are applied for rootworm, then check strips should be left to determine if the treatment was warranted or not.
Map showing counties sampled in 2002
Map showing fields sampled in 2002
For further information contact Bruce Eisley IPM Program, The Ohio State University or the Ohio IPM Office.
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