Trap Catches Identified to June 29

Greetings!

Welcome to the first Aphid Alert of 2017.  The traps are out and running, aphids are coming in and we’re off to an interesting start.

It seems the colder than average summer hasn’t kept the aphids away.  With 3 locations already reporting, we’ve seen some vector species already including 2 Green Peach Aphids from McVille, North Dakota!  Just remember, it’s never too early to scout!

UPDATE - 7 more sites reported in this week - Ada had a big capture and Green peach aphids have been recovered in Ada and Hoople as well.  This gives us 3 sites so far this year that have recovered Green peach.  It's still early days but it's looking like we might be in for an aphid year....

Scouting for aphids in potatoes:

·         Select leaves from the lower to mid canopy.

·         Lower, older leaves will have more established colonies and aphids prefer the balance of nutrients found here; aphids are rarely found on leaves in the upper canopy.

·         Avoid leaves on the ground or in contact with the soil.

·         In seed potatoes there is only a threshold for PLRV (10 aphids/100 leaves), reactive application of insecticides an effective control for PVY.

·         The use of feeding suppressing insecticides, such as pymetrozine (Fulfill®) or flonicamid (Beleaf®) and refined crop oils, such as Aphoil and JMS Stylet Oil, at or prior to field colonization by aphids may reduce the transmission of PVY within fields. Some other insecticides, such as clothianidin (Belay®), imidacloprid (Admire Pro® or Provado®), and spirotetramat (Movento®), have also been demonstrated to reduce the transmission of PVY.

·         In table stock potatoes, a treatment threshold of 30 aphids /100 leaves should deter yield loss due to aphid feeding.

The PVY Risk Index Index  Not all species of aphid are equally efficient at transmitting PVY, some are better than others (green peach being the most efficient vector of PVY).  So, the total number of aphids in a trap don't necessarily reflect just how much vector pressure there is at that location. The PVY Vector Risk Index compares aphid numbers, incorporating their relative vector efficiency compared to the Queen of PVY vectors (green peach aphid!).  Using averaged reference comparisons from the literature, we multiply the number of each aphid species captured by its efficiency compared to Green Peach Aphid to more accurately depict risk posed by the species being trapped.  We then sum the totals.  The PVY-VRI values are presented on the tables below but also on maps comparing current cumulative risk to the total risk from the sample sites of last year (to compare with your local winter grow out results).

Click on images for full sized versions...