We know that every year is different. Farmers must prepare for any eventuality and be able to pivot your plan on very short notice. Different weather patterns also bring other problems with them. Different diseases, weed pressures, and even pest problems come along with floods or drought. In the dry conditions we are seeing in the corn belt, we are already seeing signs of a certain pest becoming a problem.
Nick Seiter is an Extension Field Crops Entomologist at the University of Illinois, and he says that he is getting reports of increased spider mite populations showing up all over the corn belt.
Seiter talks about what signs farmers should be looking out for to determine if they have a spider mite problem.
There are ways to get control of the situation when you have a spider mite infestation.
Seiter says that rains are still the best weapon we have against the growth of spider mite populations.
