Soybean Commodity Cooperative Agricultural Pest Survey

Abstract

The NYS IPM program has partnered with NYS Dept. of Agriculture and Markets and USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) for many years on various commodity surveys to monitor for potentially invasive species that would be of concern to NYS agriculture. Our 2019 -2020 soybean commodity survey was successful, and we were asked to continue. In 2021, five NYS IPM and CCE collaborators surveyed 25 soybean fields in 23 counties from June until October. No moths of the two potentially invasive species were caught, demonstrating that they still aren’t a present threat to NY farmers. We started to look for soybean gall midge in 2020 and 2021. This pest was not found in NYS. In 2021 soybean cyst nematode was identified in soil samples collected from 8 fields in 8 counties. In total, we have found 36 counties in NYS with SCN. This means that where soybeans are grown in NYS there is a high risk of having SCN in those fields. Soybean cyst nematode is by far the worst yield-damaging pest of soybeans in the United States.