Project code: PRR06-940
Project Lead
Tracey Baute - Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs
Objective
To develop bilingual field scouting and threshold cards designed to educate and guide soybean growers, scouts and crop consultants in monitoring and making informed decisions for soybean aphid management
Summary of Results
Soybean aphids are the most important insect pest for the soybean industry in Canada since its appearance in Ontario and Quebec in 2001, and Manitoba in 2003. Reliable action thresholds have been developed in the past, but understanding and implementing these thresholds may be a cumbersome task for growers and crop consultants. Improper identification, field scouting and aphid population assessments can lead to mistimed and/or unnecessary applications of foliar insecticides resulting in economic losses and adverse effects on natural enemies and environment as a whole. This project aimed at developing easy to use pocket guides to help soybean growers and service personnel to improve management of soybean aphids. The guides consist of a field scouting card and a threshold postcards featuring techniques to estimate aphid counts, to properly identify aphids and their key natural enemies, and economic thresholds to promote the benefits of natural enemies and use of reduced risk management practices. It is anticipated that the use of these cards will lead to recommendations on timing spray applications according to the presence of the pest and their natural enemies, hence eliminating unnecessary insecticide applications. Therefore, these cards are considered an important kit in the aphid management toolbox for reducing the risk from pesticides in soybean production.
The cards were developed with the contribution of soybean aphid experts across Canada including provincial extension specialists, researchers, and industry partners and with the financial support of Pesticide Risk Reduction of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Agricultural Adaptation Council, Ontario Soybean Growers, and Syngenta. Bilingual cards are distributed to soybean growers across Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba through provincial government offices and soybean growers associations. This work is part of a larger project aiming to develop a complete Canadian Soybean Aphid Information and Education Package planned to be available to soybean growers in winter 2007.