Psyllid captures dropped this week

This week we received traps from 31 of the 55 fields that we are monitoring. Twenty-two fields have been vine killed or are senescing and are no longer being monitored. We captured a total of 15 psyllids across 7 fields. Five of the fields were in Canyon County, and the other two fields were in Elmore and Twin Falls counties.

Total psyllid captures dropped notably from last week. The slightly cooler temperatures and precipitation likely contributed to lower captures.

All psyllids tested from last week’s captures were negative for Lso, the bacterium associated with zebra chip disease (ZC); however, the results from the psyllids that arrived to us late are still pending. Interestingly, we still have not had a positive psyllid since early July.

With harvest season upon us, it is worth remembering that our studies in Russet Burbank showed that ZC can develop during storage if infection occurs as late as two weeks before vine kill. Please consider this in your late-season IPM programs. More information on management can be found here: https://www.uidaho.edu/cals/potatoes/news/psyllid-management

To view the weekly data by site in the old spreadsheet format: https://tinyurl.com/potatopsyllid