- Location
- Cambridge
Anybody else finding flea beetle larvae in the growing point of the plants . I thought there was less pressure this year but can find them easily .
Flea beetle again !!
- Thread starter where is hardy
- Start date
- Location
- S.E
Wouldnt know as unfortunately we have had to stop growing OSR since they removed the use of neonics.
shakerator
Member
- Location
- LINCS
- Location
- Lincolnshire
Think pigeons are eating mine or hopefully they will freeze to death next week,gotta keep positive.
GeorgeK
Member
- Location
- Leicestershire
Haven't looked, weather's miserable enough without going in search of more bad news
- Location
- S.E
Apparently ive been banging my head against the wall regarding this point for 2 years now. Trying to drill OSR early (to get it away) makes 0 (zero/ziltch/nadda/nothing) difference to larvae numbers. It will stop the beetles literally eating the plant to death but it WILL NOT make a difference to larvae numbers.
I pulled stumps on rape 2 years ago. Was talking with a couple of farmers yesterday who didn't plant last autumn after a disastrous 2020 rape harvest who where beginning to wonder if they should have had another roll of the dice this year. Adult CSFB numbers seemed quite low last autumn, so it doesn't bode well for the crop if it's still struggling now.
yellow belly
Member
- Location
- south west lincolnshire
the problem for last autumn would be the small area of rape means the flea beetle eventually find the fields and lay their eggs once the crop has established
any one who got a big area established may have diluted the numbers enough
but if they were a 3 insecticides or more farmer there will be no help from parasitic wasps
- Location
- Bedfordshire
Surely that's not unusual, so I would have thought they would survive fairly well.
Neighbour planted osr next to field I had osr in that was ravaged by larvae last year. I thought he was very brave. Lost a few plants to adults in the autumn particularly adjacent to mine. However seem like very few larvae from my quick look today. Not sure why but it does have a companion crop of berseem clover. Very jealous.
Chae1
Member
- Location
- Aberdeenshire
I'm considering growing osr this year after winter barley. Will never have had osr grown in these fields before. I'm hoping colder temperatures up here will nuke the beasties.
yellow belly
Member
- Location
- south west lincolnshire
Back in the 90s the advantage of cold dec jan feb was that the eggs hatched in nov and then it was too cold so later egg did not make it
rescently warm autumns and winters means they all make it and numbers in the plant are much higher
shakerator
Member
- Location
- LINCS
looks like minimum a week at minus 5, or two days at -10 for 50% kill...
yellow belly
Member
- Location
- south west lincolnshire
Rape with out snow cover does not like -10looks like minimum a week at minus 5, or two days at -10 for 50% kill...
we often had snow cover in the 80s
if we did not have snow cover pigeons grazed it hard
- Location
- South Oxfordshire
Last time we had larvae in the stems, frosts knackered the crops. I think the holes made in the stem opened up the Xylem to damage, and the plant just rot's