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Higher wheat price makes pest damage more costlyNebraska Higher prices increase the cost of insect damage to wheat and lowers the threshold at which treatment pays, said a University of Nebraska-Lincoln specialist. As prices increase, insect damage becomes more expensive, so producers should be looking at how much damage they can tolerate, said Gary Hein, Extension entomology specialist at UNL's Panhandle Research and Extension Center. For example, the Russian wheat aphid threshold used to be 20 percent of tillers affected, he said. As we double the value of the crop, though, we cut that threshold in half. In some instances, the value of the crop may quadruple, so producers may have to reduce the threshold by four times. "In very good wheat, we could have thresholds as low as 5 percent, Hein said. Tillage and other cultural practices may have an impact, but it isn't always good. They can make the crop more vulnerable to some insect pests. "We've seen an influx of wheat stem sawfly in the western Panhandle," Hein said. One thing that seems to impact aphid populations is warmer and extended falls and warmer winters, Hein said. This weather trend affects the ability of insects to overwinter. "My biggest worry is the effect of these extended falls on wheat streak mosaic," Hein said. "It's transmitted by a mite vector; and warm fall and winter weather has produced more activity and more replication of the vector." Producers need to be familiar with the insects they might see and search for material on how to manage them. They should go to the UNL website http://cropwatch.unl.edu/ and click on Wheat Production in the left menu bar. That link will take them to links specific to various wheat insects and diseases. Several NebGuides are also available by clicking on NebGuides and NebFacts in the left menu bar. Another good regional source of information is the High Plains IPM Guide. It's available at http://highplainsipm.org. Click on crops and then small grains to find a "Wheat Symptoms Diagnostic Key." In view of significantly higher wheat prices, careful pest management makes good economic sense, Hein said. 6/2/08 Date: 5/28/08
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