Greetings,
The recent weather, being a bit wetter than necessary, is delaying fieldwork.
These recent systems have pulled moisture and helped migrating insects into Minnesota.
Which migrant species show up in your area depends on the track of weather systems from the south. The recent system tracked well to the north of Lamberton. As always, your fields may be different but if you experienced strong southerly winds followed by rain you may have got in on some of the following action.
Painted lady butterflies made it to the SWROC recently. When populations are very high, their thistle caterpillar larvae can be pests of some crops such as soybeans and sunflowers.
Red admiral butterflies continued to arrive. Feeding on nettles, their larvae are not pests- unless you happen to have a fondness for that plant family. One of the sulphur butterfly species recently appeared here too, joining the ladies and admirals recharging on dandelion nectar. The orange sulphur larvae, a.k.a. alfalfa caterpillar, feed on alfalfa and soybeans.
Significant numbers of black cutworm moths moved into some areas of Minnesota since April 27. Some captures in the pheromone trap network have been unusually large for the area.
Sweep net samples of winter rye showed aster leafhoppers arrived with the same system. As of 5/1, populations are still low here and less than 1/sweep. They can cause issues in several ornamentals, vegetables, and agronomic crops when populations are high and they carry the aster yellows phytoplasma.
In the same recent sweeps of rye trap crop, numerous winged English grain aphids were found. Bird cherry-oat aphids were much less abundant in these sweeps.
Alfalfa weevil adults are just beginning to move into alfalfa.
Happy Trails!
Bruce