Krista Hamilton, Entomologist, Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection
Spring has arrived and our busy field season is officially underway. The past year has brought considerable change to the Pest Survey Program at DATCP. We have used this period of transition as an opportunity to reevaluate many aspects of our work, including how we collect and report our important survey data. One outcome of lengthy discussions is that we will no longer offer the Wisconsin Pest Bulletin in its traditional form.
We have made upgrades to our field data collection capabilities and are introducing new efficiencies to the program this season. We’ve also determined that the time has come to transform our weekly publication into a more streamlined and accessible format.
Beginning today, our pest monitoring data will be available on the DATCP Pest Survey page: DATCP Home Wisconsin Pest Surveys.
Please use this landing page to link to our pest monitoring network results for apple orchard pests, black light traps, black cutworm, corn earworm, true armyworm and western bean cutworm. Current growing degree day accumulations are also available by clicking Degree Days in the right sidebar.
In addition, we are excited to announce that we have partnered with EDDMapS and AgPestMonitor to bring you our counts via their platform, which features time series maps of our black cutworm, true armyworm, corn earworm and western bean cutworm trap catch data: Insects – Corn ipmPIPE.
We will continue to update our pest monitoring network pages each Thursday throughout the growing season. You can expect to receive a weekly notification when the latest counts are posted.
Although the Wisconsin Pest Bulletin will no longer be offered, please be assured that our field surveys remain as strong and timely as ever, and that our significant work continues. It’s only our reporting format that has changed.