Nick Seiter Email

This author has written 35 articles

Corn leaf aphids – when to scout and what to expect

  • July 1, 2026

  • Nick Seiter

As our earlier planted corn begins to tassel, folks who have experienced corn leaf aphid outbreaks the last couple of years should begin scouting. This insect remains an uncommon pest; however, several hybrids were affected both during the rather large outbreak we experienced in 2024 in central Illinois and in 2025, when overall corn leaf aphid numbers were much closer to what we see in a typical year. Most pest aphids are sensitive to differences in cultivar,…

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Rootworm Beetle Monitoring – Volunteers Wanted for 2026

  • June 24, 2026

  • Nick Seiter

For the last several years, we have participated in a regional corn rootworm beetle trapping network. Our goal is to understand, on a regional basis, how rootworm populations are changing, including the prevalence of northern corn rootworms, risk to first-year corn from the variant western corn rootworm, and simply identifying areas where the rootworm population might be growing. If you are interested in participating, we will provide sticky traps for as many fields as you wish to monitor.…

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Applied Research Results for 2025 Now Available

  • May 1, 2026

  • Nick Seiter

Each year, we conduct field evaluations, surveys, and other projects that have direct implications for pest management decisions made by Illinois farmers. For example, we conduct third-party evaluations of many of the insecticides and biotech traits available for corn rootworm control every season. Our annual report summarizes these findings for farmers, crop advisors, and others who have a stake in control decision-making. The 2025 report (along with previous reports dating back to 2018) can be found at the following link: https://go.illinois.edu/pestmanagementresearchreport.…

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Alfalfa insect management survey & insecticide resistance screening

  • January 5, 2026

  • Nick Seiter

If you have found yourself dealing with alfalfa weevil more often in the last few years, you are not alone. Reports of large populations and control failures have seemingly increased in recent years, not just in Illinois but throughout the Midwest. Alfalfa weevil populations resistant to pyrethroid insecticides were confirmed in the western U.S. several years ago, and there are some indications we might be seeing this in the Midwest as well. In Illinois specifically, it has been several years since our management recommendations in alfalfa have been revisited – we want to make sure these recommendations reflect the current situation.…

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Rootworm Beetle Emergence – 2024 Monitoring Program

  • June 25, 2024

  • Nick Seiter

Corn rootworm beetles will begin emerging throughout Illinois over the next couple of weeks (we noticed the first few western corn rootworm beetles of the year at our Urbana field site earlier this week). There are a number of things we can learn by keeping track of corn rootworm emergence, particularly in fields that have a history of rootworm problems:

  • Control performance. Usually, our first indication that a local population is developing resistance to a Bt trait package is elevated numbers of beetles emerging from traited corn;

…

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Help Wanted: 2023 Corn Rootworm Adult Monitoring

  • June 16, 2023

  • Nick Seiter

For the last several years, Illinois cooperators have participated in a region-wide monitoring effort for corn rootworm beetles. (You can view the results of these efforts at https://www.rootwormipm.org; see “Adult Trapping Network” on the upper right). This effort allows us to track corn rootworm distributions over time, identify likely problem areas, and keep track of the species composition between western and norther corn rootworm. These monitoring efforts have helped us to document several trends over the last couple of years,…

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2022 Applied Research Report now available

  • February 1, 2023

  • Nick Seiter

Image of the cover for the 2022 Applied Research Results Field Crop Disease and Insect Management report. Evaluations of insect and disease control tactics for corn, soybean, and wheat. Statewide surveys of corn and soybean pests. Includes Illinois Extension Block "I" logo.
The 2022 report of Applied Research on field crop insects is now available for download online at https://go.illinois.edu/2022PestPathogenARB. The report has a rootworm-heavy emphasis this year, with 12 field evaluations of traits and insecticides, Bt-resistance bioassay results for western and northern corn rootworm, continuing work on entomopathogenic nematodes, and new work evaluating corn rootworm adult sampling methods. In addition, you can find the results of our annual statewide insect survey,…

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Dectes stem borer survey

  • September 6, 2022

  • Nick Seiter

Similar to last year, we will conduct a survey for dectes stem borer stem tunneling in Illinois over the next several weeks, and are looking for volunteers to help us monitor fields. If you are interested in scouting some of your fields for dectes stem borer, send me an email (nseiter@illinois.edu) and I will provide you our sampling protocol/data sheet. Basically, it involves splitting 25 soybean stems per field between R6 and R8 and counting the number of tunnels and larvae.…

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Join our corn rootworm monitoring network

  • June 10, 2022

  • Nick Seiter

  • Corn rootworm populations have expanded over the last several years in northern IL
  • We’re recruiting volunteers to help monitor rootworm populations
  • If you are interested in rootworm trapping, send an email to nseiter@illinois.edu with your contact information, shipping address, and how many fields you plan to monitor

Both western and northern corn rootworm population levels have increased over the last couple of years as resistance to Bt traits becomes more widespread.…

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2021 Applied Research Report Now Available

  • February 2, 2022

  • Nick Seiter

Each year, we produce a report of our applied research efforts related to insect and disease management in field crops. New for this year, we’ve created a landing page at https://extension.illinois.edu/global/field-crop-insect-and-disease-applied-research, where you can view this year’s report along previous versions (2018-2020). The 2021 report includes several highlights, such as:

  • Western and northern corn rootworm Bt resistance monitoring, as well as trait performance in field experiments
  • New surveys of dectes stem borer stem tunneling and corn rootworm sticky traps,

…

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