As drought conditions continue in Greene County, a couple of insects have found their way into the crops.

ISU Extension Field Agronomist Mike Witt says spider mites are a regular pest that have appeared when there’s drier conditions. However, he says those insects haven’t risen to an alarming rate. Witt points out a pest that has seen a dramatic increase are grasshoppers. 

“If you’re out driving around it might look like a lot of the field edges might have been hit by a hail storm or a pretty significant wind that actually is from those grasshoppers coming in there and stripping away all of that foliage.”

Witt adds since there’s no economic threshold that triggers trying to treat grasshoppers with insecticide on those field edges, a farmer could end up paying more to treat them than just letting them infect those outside edges.