- After the grain corn is harvested, some aphids will seek out new sources of food. Young winter crops are a tasty morsel for them.
- The forecasted high temperatures and lack of rainfall are ideal conditions for the development of aphids. They can massively colonize winter crops, and thus transmit dangerous viruses.
Aphids suck the sap from tissues, weakening plants and making them more susceptible to disease. Indirectly, these pests are often vectors of viruses. Although aphids in corn usually do no major damage, they are a bridge between hosts.
When corn becomes mature and dries up, its dead tissues are no longer attractive to aphids. They seek new hosts and often fly to young cereal crops. They then pose a serious threat to them, because they can be carriers of dangerous viruses (including BYDV, or barley yellow dwarf).
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This year belongs to cereal viruses
No protective barrier
What's more, corn in the agricultural space is a kind of natural barrier to the movement of pests between individual fields. Although migrant aphids can fly, they can also be moved over longer distances using air currents. When the corn is cut for grain, there will be no natural barriers stopping aphids and the movement of these pests will be very free.
So is the threat from cereal viruses growing?
The year 2024 belonged to cereal viruses. Many plantations, especially winter barley, were infected with BYDV, but also winter wheat and even spring cereals were infected. Therefore, this year the situation may repeat itself, although this is not the rule. It is certainly necessary to monitor the development of events, because the risk is high in this respect.
It is worth knowing that not all aphids are virus carriers. Much depends on where the pests previously fed. Corn viruses do not spread to cereals, but aphids produce numerous generations and move during the season, so it is not known where and when they will become infected with the virus. The most common source of infection are wild plants, including grasses and volunteer cereals.
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When to sow winter crops? We remind you of the optimal dates
Grains must be protected from the very emergence
That is why we recommend inspecting cereal plantations from the very emergence. Aphids fly into young cereal crops practically from the moment they are pinned. The warmer the weather during this period, the greater the risk of mass raids and thus virus infection of the plants.
Therefore, after sowing, this condition should be monitored using yellow dishes placed in the field and by conducting daily inspections of the plantation. After noticing migrants on plants, it is worth reaching for a registered insecticide that will eliminate the founders of the families and protect the plantations from severe virus infection.
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Aphids are infected. In which counties has the virus threat been identified?