Vegetable Pest Update 7/9/15

An early flight of corn ear worms… and watch out for squash vine borer! – from Alan Eaton and George Hamilton

Fresh silking corn, at risk of attack by CEW

We have detected a fairly early flight of corn ear worms (CEW) in New Hampshire. None were captured June 29 to July 3, but trap checks July 6 & 7 turned up corn earworms in several sites (Hillsborough & Rockingham Counties). As we write this at noon July 7^th, Monday & Tuesday’s data are not on the website yet, but get posted every Sunday for the previous week, for you to see. In spots where moths were detected, fresh silking corn is at risk of attack. Some sites had pretty high numbers.

By the way, you can track squash vine borer catches, too. They are still going up. Here is the link to the vegetable insect monitoring page: http://extension.unh.edu/IPM-Trapping

Remember that at the bottom of each data page is information on thresholds and decision-making.

Late blight update– from Cheryl Smith

Late blight has been confirmed on Potato in Chittendon Co., VT (Chittendon Co. is around Burlington). ***as of 7/9/15, it is also located in Orleans Co., VT*** We don’t know yet which race it is. Scout for symptoms, and consider applying protectant fungicides (refer to the 2014 -2015 NE Vegetable Guide http://nevegetable.org/   for suggested fungicides). We usually recommend holding off on LB-specific fungicides until the disease is very close or confirmed in NH.  With the weather patterns we have been having…I expect to see plenty more diseases developing.

Editor’s NOTE: See this helpful page for a refresher on symptoms of late blight. If you are not sure whether something you see is late blight, e-mail photos to the UNH Cooperative Extension Education Center, Cheryl Smith, or Becky Sideman.