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Stinkbugs cause issues in Ohio soybean fields

Poor seed quality has been reported this week in a few fields in western Ohio’s Darke County and an OSU extension educator says stink bugs appear to be the main cause.

“You could pull pod after pod where when you opened the pod up at least one of the beans was almost a rice flake size where it appeared the stink bug had pierced that soybean and ruined that soybean for production purposes” says Custer.

Sam Custer tells Brownfield the problem seems to be confined to a few fields in the southern part of Darke county.

“Stink bugs haven’t been an issue over here, we’ve dealt with bean leaf beetles but this might be the first time the stink bugs have made it clear to the western part of the state and have been an issue,” says Custer.

Custer says choosing seed varieties that are highly resistant to fungus and insects can help mitigate the problem as well as regular scouting.

“The farmers we talked to this week may have just missed that opportunity to apply an insecticide and go from a 40 bushel crop to an outstanding crop of 70 plus bushels per acre,” says Custer.

Custer tells Brownfield scouting a field is crucial for farmers to stay ahead of insect issues with crops.

Audio: Sam Custer, Ag Educator Ohio State Extension