This figure will increase with lower wheat prices and decrease with higher wheat prices. It is often difficult to justify a chemical treatment since brown wheat mite infestations are associated with drought stress. If a driving rain of at least inch occurs, mite levels will be significantly reduced regardless of chemical treatment. If it does not rain, crop yield may be so reduced by drought as to make chemical treatment uneconomical. Also, if white eggs are present and red eggs are mostly hatched, the population is in natural decline and treatment is not economically justifiable.
Army cutworm seems to be more active in Kansas than it was last year.
It is still a little early to tell if we will have much of a problem in our wheat or alfalfa. Increased activity in Kansas and eastern Colorado could also mean more miller moth activity later this spring. The army cutworm has one generation per year. Eggs hatch in the fall following a rainfall, and the army cutworm spends the winter as a partially grown caterpillar. It will feed on warmer days throughout the winter.