Aphids on a soybean plant.

Scouting advised for soybean aphids

Soybean aphids have been spotted in a few fields in southern Ontario that haven’t seen soybean aphids in quite a few years. As soybeans begin to enter R1, weekly scouting is advised, focusing first on the earlier planted fields close to or in R1, as well as any that have not had much rain and […] Read more

A winged green peach aphid (Myzus persicae).

Controlling insect pests without harming beneficial insect species

Science Notes: Horizontally transferred genes in insect genomes can selectively kill green peach aphids

Killing crop-damaging insects by targeting genes essential to their survival is a promising approach to pest control. Because essential genes are often conserved across multiple insect species, the challenge is finding targets whose silencing kills the pests but not beneficial insects. Led by Georg Jander, a professor at the Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI), a team of […] Read more