Mixed Winter May Mean Mixed Insect Pressure This Spring

The weather is starting to warm up in the Red River Valley, and that means the return of bugs to the fields. University of Minnesota Extension Entomologist Ian MacRae says the milder winter weather much of the region received could limit the amount of bugs, but it depends on many other factors. “We had a mixed bag this winter. It wasn’t as cold as it normally is, but on the other hand, we also didn’t have a lot of snow cover. So, while we had warmer temperatures than we normally do, we did not have the ground cover. So, it’s going to be kind of a shot in the dark as to what we’re going to get.” MacRae thinks soybean aphids could be a problem again this year. “It’s probably not a bad idea to do early scouting for soybean aphid this year,” MacRae says. “I’m not sure we had temperatures cold enough to kill overwintering soybean aphids, and we had a lot of soybean aphids at the end of the year.”