Pests and Diseases

Pests and diseases can decimate agronomic crops and result in huge financial losses. Make use of Penn State Extension’s substantial library of resources including recommendations for managing weeds, insects, and disease pests in a variety of agronomic crops. Find tips on dealing with bacteria, molds, fungal diseases, and rot.

Agronomic Crops Diseases and Integrated Pest Management

There are several ways to deal with pests. If you want to use pesticides on your agronomic crops you may need a license. To maintain a valid applicator’s license in Pennsylvania, private pesticide applicators must fulfil a continuing education requirement. Penn State Extension provides a number of workshops for anyone looking to become certified or recertified. They include Agronomic Pesticide Update workshops, an online course covering What's New in Agronomic Pest Control, and an Agronomic Pesticide Update Webinar. The Penn State Agronomy Guide also covers pest management.

Many different pests can affect agronomic crops; for example, slugs are a challenging pest for no-till farmers. New herbicide products are regularly released making pest management even more demanding. It’s not something crop producers have to face on their own. Certified crop advisers can help producers with pest management as well as studying soil and water, crop, and nutrient management.

Common Corn Pests and Diseases

A number of different pests and diseases can affect corn crops at various growth stages. Mild temperatures and increased humidity, for example, can lead to corn leaf blight and gray leaf spot. Corn ear rot and mycotoxins can also be a problem when humidity is high. Knowing what corn diseases to look for means you can make the right decisions on what to spray, and indeed whether to spray at all.

As well as combating diseases, corn producers also have a number of pests to contend with. An increase in reduced-tillage culture and planting corn into sod and small grain cover crops has led to an increase in armyworm damage.

Several species of billbugs feed on corn plants causing damage in May. The adults chew small holes in the stems which can severely retard or even kill small plants.

Pests that cause damage below ground can be challenging to control, particularly in corn production. Crop rotation is one way to reduce numbers. The seedcorn maggot is one example.

Common Soybean Pests and Diseases

Soybean production has steadily been increasing in Pennsylvania. Being able to assess soybean fields for insect damage and learning how to recognize soybean pests are important factors for successful and profitable agronomic crop production. The soybean aphid, for example, is an exotic pest of soybean that can heavily stress plants, leading to a reduction in yields of up to 40%.

Soybean diseases such as stem canker, brown stem rot, and sudden death syndrome can also wreak havoc on soybean crops.

Wheat and Small Grains Common Pests and Diseases

For wheat and small grains producers, there is the added complication of pests being present in stored grain. The Angoumois Grain Moth, for example, can make grain smell unpleasant, making it less attractive for consumption. Foreign grain beetles are a fungus-feeding insect commonly found in grain stored on farms in Pennsylvania. The sawtoothed and merchant grain beetles are two more pests that can contaminate stored grains.

Effective control of stored grain pests requires an IPM approach that combines sanitation, identification, monitoring, and preventive practices.