EUROPEAN CHAFER MANAGEMENT IN FIELD CORN AND WINTER WHEAT

Several thousand hectares of corn and wheat were infested again with economically damaging populations this year in the sandier soils across most of southern Ontario. Research at the Ridgetown College/Department of Plant Agriculture in collaboration with producers and industry has led to a preliminary sampling plan and decision threshold in both wheat and corn to assist producers in identifying economically threatened fields. Work over the past three years has also led to the registration this spring of chlothianidin in corn which appears to control chafers in corn seedlings when applied as a seed treatment. So far we do not have a viable solution other than avoidance in winter wheat.
(Dr. Art Schaafsma, Ridgetown College, University of Guelph) .

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