Diseases and insect pests. Various diseases sometimes attack oats and sharply reduce the yield. They include smuts, rusts, septoria, and barley yellow dwarf. Oat crops can also be damaged by such insects as aphids, army worms, cutworms, cereal leaf beetles, and grasshoppers. Aphids are especially troublesome because they spread the barley yellow dwarf disease.
Some farmers use chemical sprays to control diseases and insects.
But the best protection comes from planting resistant varieties of oats. Researchers continually develop new varieties that are more resistant to diseases and insects. The new varieties also produce higher yields and better grain. Oats belong to the grass family, Poaceae or Gramineae, and to the genus Avena. Common oats belong to the species A. sativa.