With September underway, crop maturity is progressing steadily, and shades of fall are becoming more evident.

After spending countless hours in the fields this summer, our Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program continues to work through pest management concerns with our area farmers and growers. Our locale has seen a variety of disease and pest issues this year, and as the season winds down, we are still steadily identifying challenges.

Many farmers may be anxious about the fall army worm after significant damage was done last year by the pest, however, the good news to report so far is that we have not had a significant flight of the adult moths observed in our area of the state.

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We have three traps set in Wayne County to help us monitor local populations of fall army worm, one maintained by Amy Raudenbush at OARDC and two maintained by our Wayne County Extension IPM program, with one trap located northwest of Wooster, and the other located east of Smithville.

Fall army worms can be found every year, typically in smaller and more sporadic numbers. Last year's massive invasion was an occurrence that many of us will not soon forget, but our hope is that we do not see another outbreak like that for a very long time. As for now, we will continue to monitor our traps and be prepared to share any timely and necessary updates about the fall army worm.

Here's why we haven't seen many potato leaf hoppers this season

Another pest that we are used to seeing that has been hard to find this year is the potato leaf hopper.

Potato leaf hoppers typically make their way into our area via storm fronts from the south (like fall army worm) and arrive in late May or early June, normally around the time that first cutting hay is being taken off.

This year, with the heat dome that set up over the central and southern states, essentially all of our weather patterns came via a route over the northern edge of the heat dome. This path brought systems from the northwest, over the northern plains, eventually moving southeast over the great lakes and Ohio Valley. This pattern was not conducive for major movement northward of pests like the potato leaf hoppers.

All summer long, our IPM program used sweep nets to help us determine populations of potato leaf hoppers in fields all over Wayne County, and for several weeks, our counts have been zero. Potato leafhoppers were detected in very small numbers in late June and early July, however those populations never exceeded two to three leafhoppers per 10 sweeps, in alfalfa that was anywhere between 10-20 inches. Those levels were consistent for several weeks, before dropping even lower in the last three to four weeks.

As we progress through September, the chance of seeing any significant potato leafhopper populations starts to decline rapidly.

Stink bugs, grasshoppers and Japanese beetles, oh my!

On the other hand, there were a few insect pests that made their presence known and are still continuing to cause concerns.

Stink bugs have been one of the more consistently found insect pests this season, in agronomic crops as well as fruit and vegetable crops.

Currently, stink bug populations are building in soybean fields, where adults and nymphs can be found, especially near the field edges, causing damage to soybean pods as they feed. The main stink bug species that we are finding at this time are green stink bugs, brown stink bugs, and brown marmorated stink bugs. Additionally, grasshoppers have been and still are being observed in high numbers. Japanese beetles came on strong early, but numbers have trended downwards significantly in the last month or so.

Disease pressure has been a challenge for many farmers and growers this year. Fruit and vegetable crops have had an array of issues, including brown rot in peaches and other stone fruit, downy mildew in cucumbers and cantaloupe, powdery mildew in cucurbits, Septoria blight in tomatoes, phytophthora in a wide range of crops, and a few isolated cases of late blight in tomatoes, among numerous other diseases.

In agronomic crops, diseases are present, but thus far, appear to have limited impact on their respective crops. We noted the arrival of our usual foliar diseases on corn such as northern corn leaf blight and gray leaf spot, and in soybeans diseases such as white mold have started to become evident, mostly as single plants, or isolated areas rather than large areas of the fields.

As we approach the end of the growing season and enter into harvest, take some time to note weed pressure, disease, and insect pest challenges that you may be dealing with this year. It is important to make note of which fields, and where in the fields you are having issues, as this can help you address these concerns in the future.

Every year will be different, but the extra steps we take to improve our overall efforts in plant health management will increase the odds of limiting impact from diseases, weeds, and insect pests.

Wishing a safe and bountiful harvest to all of our area farmers and growers!

Frank Becker is the Wayne County OSU Extension Agriculture & Natural Resources Integrated Pest Management Program coordinator, and certified crop adviser, and may be reached at 330-264-8722 or becker.5872osu.edu 

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This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: Wayne County crop update: dealing with stink bugs and army worms