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April 01, 2021
URBANA, Ill. – It finally happened; your garden’s first tomato is ready to harvest. Bright red and plump, you can practically taste it, but on closer inspection someone already has.
Do you dig out the trusty bottle of insecticide?
Not so fast, says Michelle Wiesbrook, a University of Illinois Extension expert in pesticide safety and horticultural weed science. Pesticides have their place in controlling persistent weed and pest outbreaks, but using them incorrectly can harm pets, kill beneficial insects, and leach chemicals into waterways and drinking supplies.
“We recommend that you use pesticides as a last resort,” Wiesbrook says. “A lot of times there are other controls that will work.”
The soybean cyst nematode, a microscopic roundworm that feeds on soybean roots, is responsible for more yield and monetary losses each year than any other pathogen in Kentucky. It also is a pathogen that hides in fields, with growers possibly never seeing the signs of its existence.
Preliminary findings from an ongoing survey that began in 2019 show the soybean cyst nematode is present in 84 percent of Kentucky soybean fields. While some producers will see signs of yellowing or stunted growth in their soybeans, most do not. Soybeans that appear healthy but are in a soybean cyst nematode-infested field will have as much as a 30 percent yield loss.