Assessing the Management of Bean Leaf Beetles and Pod Mottle Virus Infections in Soybeans

This proposal will evaluate the efficacy of single and double mode of action insecticides for the management of the bean leaf beetle (BLB) in replicate tests conducted in the UKY’s Research and Education Center in Princeton. Insecticides will be sprayed during early and late developmental stages of soybean plants and tallies on the numbers of BLB will be conducted prior to the spray and 3, 7, 14 and 21 days after the application. Yields will be evaluated at harvest. Also, at least four commercial soybean fields (Daviess, Henderson, Lyon and Hickman counties) will be visited biweekly to determine the populations of BLB during VE to V3 developmental stages and later during R3 to R5 stage. In addition, leaf samples will be collected from at least ten commercial fields located in the abovementioned counties and some other counties that mainly represent soybean acreage in KY. Samples will be collected in at least 3 times (V3, R5, and seeds after harvest), all they will be outsourced for virus analysis to determine the infection rates of pod mottle virus. All this information will be summarized and delivered to end users using printed, digital media and in growers and professional meetings. Almost 89% ($7,264) of this fund will cover the hiring of an undergraduate student, travel to locations to collect data, and virus analysis of soybean tissue samples.