Flea beetle

[Barley]

Has anyone else noticed very few flea beetle in the harvested osr?

 

[T Hectares]

Yep, virtually none

 

[Barley]

Do we think this will be a low pressure year?

 

[copse]

Has anyone else noticed very few flea beetle in the harvested osr?

Yes definitely not many about and hopefully they rain has drowned the buggers

 

[copse]

Do we think this will be a low pressure year?

I drilled some forage rape in middle of may and they absolutely hammered it 10 days after it came up

 

[T Hectares]

Do we think this will be a low pressure year?

You would assume so
But the Vols in the tramlines have some shot holing on them

 

[BRBX]

Volunteer rape in beet had a hammering

 

[Rookie]

Worked some land which was left fallow (previous crop ww) the other day and there were loads of flea beetle moving about on freshly moved ground. Got a bit of a shock.

 

[thorpe]

not risking it here!

 

[A.R.]

Kale obliterated here.

 

[rijowi64]

None trying to escape the grain store but whether that means less beetle when we get planting god only knows. There’s a lot still to learn about these critters.

 

[Brisel]

None in the grain store but any spring germinating brassicas including charlock (which they don't normally like eating) were seriously shot holed back in the spring.

Don't underestimate the flea beetle! Lots of infested crops across the country, some of which were taken to harvest. You only need one field of them upwind to have them flying back in in late August in a swarm.

 

[thorpe]

None in the grain store but any spring germinating brassicas including charlock (which they don't normally like eating) were seriously shot holed back in the spring.

Don't underestimate the flea beetle! Lots of infested crops across the country, some of which were taken to harvest. You only need one field of them upwind to have them flying back in in late August in a swarm.

bu99er rape

 

[DrWazzock]

The big swarms seem to come on from mid August if it’s hot. My forage kale was destroyed by them in May. Who knows what will happen this year but it’s looking dryish now longer term so I’m not risking it.

 

[DrWazzock]

I had thought of trying some HSS if the forecast looks wet but my HSS looks very ropey. There are schemes to refund bought seed costs but the associated costs of companion crop, forced to use suppliers agronomy etc look like costing £££ on top, then there’s pigeons, cranesbill and hailstorms, faffing about with the bed extension etc so I’m out unfortunately. Sticking with CNUM3 if ever the IT system gets up and running.

 

[ZXR17]

Game cover Kale eaten within days of emerging here, each time !!

 

[Badshot]

The radish in my legume mix got very shot holed.
A lot survived, but I doubt osr would have.

 

[Salopian_Will]

We should all be cultivating straight after harvest:

Tools to help tackle CSFB

Piece by piece, researchers are assembling a toolkit of approaches aimed at delivering an integrated pest management (IPM) solution for cabbage stem flea beetle control in oilseed rape.

cropscience.bayer.co.uk

 

[DrWazzock]

We should all be cultivating straight after harvest:

Tools to help tackle CSFB

Piece by piece, researchers are assembling a toolkit of approaches aimed at delivering an integrated pest management (IPM) solution for cabbage stem flea beetle control in oilseed rape.

cropscience.bayer.co.uk

That agrees with what my agronomist said last year. Plough them down. We did that here but obviously with the fashion for zero till, many neighbours didn’t.
I was thinking of simply discing barley stubbles lightly to get a decent and early barley chit and smooth out ruts and tramlines to get an early chit of barley volunteers as companions then going in with the drill. There’ll still be a big influx of beetles in late august though, I reckon. Happened before when we drilled into a grass ley. Seemed to get going then a big migration in early September during a hot spell cleared the OSR right out. We are just rearranging deck chairs and peeing about really.

 

[Salopian_Will]

That agrees with what my agronomist said last year. Plough them down. We did that here but obviously with the fashion for zero till, many neighbours didn’t.
I was thinking of simply discing barley stubbles lightly to get a decent and early barley chit and smooth out ruts and tramlines to get an early chit of barley volunteers as companions then going in with the drill. There’ll still be a big influx of beetles in late august though, I reckon. Happened before when we drilled into a grass ley. Seemed to get going then a big migration in early September during a hot spell cleared the OSR right out. We are just rearranging deck chairs and peeing about really.

Not rearranging deckchairs if neighbours co-operate. I have seen NIAB data showing massive reductions from cultivating stubbles to 50mm within 24hrs of harvest. I am in touch with our immediate neighbours and pretty much all are on board, as they are equally affected.