Just as a side-note guys, I notice that a lot of folks are still calling this message as late as Wednesday or Thursday.  You should be aware that because the scouting occurs Monday through Thursday and is recorded on Friday, you should be calling on Friday afternoon or over the weekend to get the latest information, before it gets too old.     Jude Boucher

This weeks message will cover: 

• Between European corn borer generations

• Fall armyworm has arrived

• Higher corn earworm pressure

• Pepper maggots have arrived

• Higher potato leafhopper populations

• Cucurbit crop update

• Japanese beetles on basil

• Thrips on onions and leeks

Between European corn borer generations
There were no ECB moths in any of the pheromone traps in Shelton, Northford, Berlin or East Hartford this week.  We are between generations for this pest, but expect moths to begin to increase again in a week or two.  If you have large plantings of peppers you want to set up two Scentry net traps in tall weeds along the border of the fields this week to help you time your first pepper sprays.  Pre-tassel stage sweet corn plantings ranged between 4-22% infested plants, while most late-whorl and mid-whorl stage plantings were clean.  You should clean up any pre-tassel stage fields with more than 15% of the plants infested by making a single spray at green tassel, or when the first few plants in the planting have fully expanded tassels, then your on to silk sprays for CEW.  

Fall armyworm has arrived
We captured 0 FAW moths in Northford and 2 in Berlin this past week.  We'll be able to report on a few more sites next week.  Needless to say, FAW has arrived early this year.  That means we may not get much of a break from spraying young corn between the borer generations.  If you have green plastic bucket traps up on your farm, make sure you check them for this pest this week.  If you are not running FAW traps on your farm, get out there and scout your young whorl stage plantings that are about a foot high.  You shouldn't see any FAW larvae in late-whorl or pre-tassel stage corn because this insect really prefers to lay eggs on 6-inch-tall plants.  So, concentrate your scouting on young whorl-stage plantings this week instead of older whorl blocks.  

Higher corn earworm pressure
Pheromone traps in Berlin only captured 0.8 CEW moths/night this week, but traps in Shelton, Northford, East Hartford and North Grosvenor Dale all captured between 2.3 and 12 moths per night, and are on a 4-day spray schedule on fresh silking corn at this time.  I expect that, at least the Shelton site which captured 12 moths/night this past week, will capture over 13 moths per night this coming week and be on a 3-day schedule.  This is really early to be battling both FAW and such heavy CEW levels.  The last time we hit a 3-day schedule in mid-July was the year 2000.  I think you guys may be doing a lot of spraying this year.   

Here are the CEW trap thresholds: 

moths per night		recommended spray interval
0-0.2		No spray
0.2-0.5		6 day schedule
0.5-1		5 day schedule
1-13		4 day schedule
>13 moths		3 day schedule

Here is a list of infestations found at different sites while scouting sweet corn this past week. *means that the planting is over threshold and should be sprayed. MW=mid-whorl, LW= late-whorl, PT=pre-tassel, S=silk. 

Town	% infested plants	Stage of planting	ECB moths trapped	CEW moths/N
Shelton	22%* 11%	PT LW	0 ECB, set up FAW	12 = 4-day schedule
Northford	4%   0%	PT LW	0 ECB, 0 FAW	7.5 = 4-day schedule
Berlin	12% 2%	PT LW	0 ECB, 2 FAW	0.8 = 5-day schedule
East Hartford	14%     0%	PT LW	0 ECB, set up FAW	7.0 = 4-day schedule
N. GrosvenorDale				2.3 = 4-day schedule

Pepper maggots have emerged
Pepper maggot flies were found in Berlin and East Hartford this week. Eggs laying usually starts within a week of finding the first flies, so if this is a serious pest on your farm, and your in the valley, your first pepper maggot spray should be going on about Wednesday. Your second spray should go on 8-10 days after the first spray.  This should take out almost all the adult flies which should provide near-complete control of the maggots.  Dimethoate and Orthene are the most effective products for pepper maggot control and last 8-14 days.  If you are purchasing dimethoate, be aware that some brands have long day-to-harvest restrictions, while other brands have a 0 or single day to harvest restriction.  The short dh restriction will make it much easier to harvest peppers after spraying for this pest.  Orthene can be applied without an applicators license but has a 7-day-to-harvest restriction, which can make harvest and sales difficult, but some folks are not yet harvesting peppers, which may make it practical to use Orthene.  One grower asked about using Mustang, which is the only product registered for PM control on eggplant, a lesser host for this pest. My experience has been that synthetic pyrethroids like Mustang offer little to no protection from the maggot, but will almost certainly cause a 2-spotted spider mite outbreak on eggplant. This particular grower has a bad problem with maggots attacking his eggplant and may have no choice but to try the Mustang.  A better method, is to plant a cherry pepper trap crop around your eggplant and apply shielded sprays of dimethoate or Orthene to just the cherry peppers. 

If you want to monitor for this pest on your farm you can simply plant hot-cherry pepper plants in the outer row of your field and check the glossy fruit on a weekly basis for stings or slight depressions in the surface of the fruit.  One plant every 20-30 feet will work as indicator plants if you just want to monitor to help time sprays, or you can put in a full single row of cherry peppers on all four sides of your pepper field, and spray just the cherry pepper trap crop about a week after you find the first sting of the season.  To monitor adult flies we use yellow sticky AM traps, baited with 28% ammonia, and placed  20 feet up in a maple tree. 

Higher potato leafhopper populations
One grower had 1-2 bright green PLH nymphs on the lower surface of every leaflet on his potato plants this week.  That is an incredibly high population considering that the threshold for potatoes is just 1 adult or 15 leafhopper nymphs per 50 compound leaves.  Each compound leaf has many little leaflets, this farm had them on every leaflet!  I recommended that he run for the sprayer, not walk. Untreated plantings with such a high infestation will look like a frost hit them in a very short time. We are also finding 4 out of 5 eggplant leaves with leafhoppers on some farms.  The threshold for eggplant is 1 per leaf, so some folks may be spraying that crop this coming week too. On eggplant you want to choose something, such as Provado, that will not disrupt the predators and parasites that help control spider mites, aphids, and CPB. Spray seedling beans before the 3 leaf-stage if you find more than 2/foot of row or between the 3-leaf and bud stage if you find 5/foot of row.  The cheapest way to control this pest on beans is to use as little a 1/4-rate of dimethoate.    

Cucurbit crop update
Pumpkins are about to start running and look pretty good on most farms.  The only powdery mildew I have seen is on early summer squash plantings.  Full season crops like pumpkins, winter squash and melons should not be planted near early summer squash fields to avoid bathing them with high levels of spores early in the season.  Early summer squash fields should be mowed off, pulled up, or plowed under after the last harvest to minimize spore spread. 

I have not yet seen any Plectosporium blight this year, but with all the rain, I am expecting to see it any time, especially up in Litchfield County where they have been getting rain almost every day for weeks.  Watch the lower older vines for white, elongated-diamond-shaped lesions.  Treat infected fields with Bravo or another chlorothalonil product, if the disease is found or, in a rainy year like this, at fruit set.