05/28/07 The hatch is on! Cereal leaf beetle hatch that is

Washington Ag May 28, 2007 A lot of reports of the cereal leaf beetle are coming in this spring from the Yakima area and the Columbia Basin. Dianna Roberts with WSU Spokane County Extension who heads up the cereal leaf beetle program says visual damage to cereal crops may be alarming but she doesn't recommend applying insecticides as the first option. Roberts: "I think that what happens sometimes is that people spray at the first sight of it and they don't necessarily have an economic threshold. And in the long term that can be detrimental because anytime we spray with the current chemicals we have we are taking out beneficial insects like ladybird beetles. And also if the cereal leaf beetle is parasitized, and in some areas there is definitely that possibility because we have been having a lot of success with the parasitoids we have released, then they would be taking those out as well." Roberts says the economic threshold for grain before the boot stage is three eggs or larvae per plant. Past boot or when heading the economic threshold is one egg or larvae per flag leaf. She says the beetle usually isn't an economic problem for winter wheat because the pest will move to spring grains in the area. If a farmer wants to know if cereal leaf beetles in their fields are parasitized before they spray they should contact Roberts and someone will come and collect samples. Call Roberts at 509-477-2167. I'm Bob Hoff.