A number of counties saw a decrease in Western bean cutworm (WBC) moths captured last week (July 29 – August 4); however, there are still counties that need to be on the lookout for WBC egg masses and larvae. Overall, 25 counties monitored 79 traps across Ohio and resulted in 824 WBC adults (down from 2842 total last week) and a statewide average of 10.4 moths/trap (down from 36.0 average last week) (Figure 1). Counties that have averages indicating scouting for WBC egg masses and larvae include: Ashtabula, Defiance Fulton, Geauga, Hancock, Lake, Lorain, Lucas, Paulding, Williams and Wood. You can view our scouting video here.
Trap data from this week confirms the 2019 WBC peak flight across Ohio occurred from July 22-28 (Figure 2).
Figure 1. Average Western bean cutworm adult per trap followed by total number of traps in the county in parentheses for week ending August 4, 2019.
Figure 2. Average western bean cutworm (WBC) per trap in monitoring counties in Ohio for 2016 (blue), 2017 (red), 2018 (green) and 2019 (purple).