There are many small, black, very active beetles (figure 1) being found in many soybean fields. Flea beetle feeding tends to be concentrated in small portions of the leaf and the holes tend to be much smaller than those of bean leaf beetle. The damage to leaves is not extensive in fields.

Bean Leaf Beetles Update

Following last weeks brief report on the presence of bean leaf beetle in some local fields, a few fields were reported to have great enough populations that sparked some interest. Leaf feeding (figure 1) in the tops of the plants was very visible. Sweep net sampling at these sites indicated bean leaf beetle infestations in the range of 0.2 beetles per sweep to a high of 1.6 beetles per sweep. Though not serious infestations, using the sliding scale treatment threshold in Table 1, we can see that some of these sites are close to treatable levels. These fields were within a 1/2 mile of the Red River and other, heavily wooded sites. These locations would be ideal overwintering sites for the beetles. Also, the largest populations were in the first planted fields in the area. The beetles are attracted to the first beans to emerge in the spring.