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HEATWAVE TO ACCELERATE CROP GROWTH AND CROP PESTS
Jun. 25, 2025
BrownfieldAgNews reports:
Recent heat is expected to accelerate the development of crop pests.
Iowa State University Extension entomologist Erin Hodgson says Growing Degree Day Units have exploded with heat indexes in the triple digits across several Midwestern states.
"That's going to accelerate everything, plant growth but also insect growth. So it's going to speed up everything, the development of insects is going to happen very rapidly over the next couple weeks."
She tells Brownfield one of those insects is Japanese beetle.
"This is an annual pest, it has one generation per year. So this is a very typical time for adults to be emerging from the soil. And if people are scouting for various reasons, they could start to see them feeding in corn or soybeans right now."
Hodgson says Japanese beetles typically aren't an economic issue but can interfere with corn pollination by clipping silks.
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