I was out scouting some wheat fields in Burlington County today. In general the fields looked in good shape and there were no major concerns.
I did see some rather low numbers of cereal leaf beetle larvae in one field. The larva numbers were well below threshold. We need to keep an eye on fields for larval damage, especially when we are in the flag leaf stage. Most growers are familiar with walking through a wheat field and getting little black dots across their pants. Those little black dots are from the larvae of the cereal leaf beetle. The larvae will eat long strips of green tissue between the leaf veins and give the plant a skeletonized appearance. Yield reductions of 10 to 20 % are not uncommon in infested fields. Scouting and control information can be found in the Mid Atlantic Pest Management Guide for Field Crops (EB No. 237).
