For Release March 7, 2000

AGRI-VIEWS
by Chuck Otte, Geary County Extension Agent

It never seems to fail that anytime we have, what seems like, a warm winter, everyone starts asking me if it’s going to be a bad insect year. The general thought process is that since it didn’t get really cold a lot of insects didn’t freeze out during the winter. I know that anytime I was out this winter, and the weather was warm, I was seeing a lot of little critters flying around. This past weekend I noticed a lot of butterflies in the air, looking for nectar anywhere. So is it going to be a bad year for bugs?

On the one hand, the standard logic is right. With a milder than normal winter, so far, we will have a greater percentage of insects survive the winter. We’ll even have insects that won’t normally survive the winter, like greenbugs and many of the other aphids, make it through to spring in good shape. One thing to remember right now is that winter, and cold weather, is a long ways from being over. We could still lose some insects to freezing! Secondly, if the weather is good for the overwintering bad bugs, then it is probably good for the overwintering good bugs.

We saw a lot of insect activity late into the season last fall. A lot of the beneficial insects were busy late into the fall. I have already seen numerous beneficial insects flying around. So, while greenbugs and aphids overwintered in greater numbers than normal, so did the insects that are predators of greenbugs and aphids. I do not expect aphids, and greenbugs, to be any worse of a problem than normal. You should also expect to see ant and termite swarms a little earlier than normal, as in any day now! To avoid panic, remember that ants will always have a pinched in, wasp like, waist, while termites will be thick bodied all the way through.

Likewise, many of our usual insect pests, like flies, mosquitoes, ticks and chiggers, will probably not be much worse than normal either. Although, if it stays warm like this, they will probably be more active earlier in the year than normal. Some of the tick species are already getting active so you need to start checking yourself, your pets and livestock carefully for tick and insect problems.

The next question has to be if there are any insect problems that I do expect to be worse than normal. Well, yes there are some that I’m concerned about. Grasshoppers overwinter as eggs laid in the ground. Extensive freezing and thawing of the soil will destroy some of those eggs as will tillage of the ground in the fall or early spring. We’ve been seeing grasshopper numbers increase the past five years and I do not expect to see a reversal in this trend. Remember that to most effectively deal with grasshoppers you need to start early and keep weeds and grass mowed down around gardens and fields.

Another insect problem that I expect to see more of in 2000 is chinch bugs. Chinch bugs are favored by warm weather and low rainfall. A dry warm fall allows chinch bug numbers to increase going into winter. Late in the fall I was seeing some alarmingly high chinch bug numbers. We no longer have the annual chinch bug survey by the Kansas Department of Agriculture. I hope to get out in the field this week and take some samples myself and do some overwintering chinch bug counts. I’ll let you know the results.

Yes, mild winters can lead to more insect problems. We may see some of those problems this spring. Be prepared and have a plan for the more common problems. Plan on having at least some Gaucho treated milo seed. Start scouting wheat now for early season insect problems. But don’t assume we’re going to have the worst. After all, we still have some winter to get through!

-30-

Return to Agri-Views Home Page

Return to Ag Home Page