Keep managing pine shoot beetle
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EmailEditor’s note: This article is from the archives of the MSU Crop Advisory Team Alerts. Check the label of any pesticide referenced to ensure your use is included.
Pine shoot beetles are amazingly consistent. In recent years, emergence of pine shoot beetle progeny has begun at about 500 to 550 growing degree days base 50. If you are in the Pine Shoot Beetle Compliance Program and need to apply a cover spray for pine shoot beetle, get ready, especially if you are in southern Michigan. The best time to spray will be right around 450-500 growing degree days base 50. At this point, the beetles are more or less starting to tunnel into shoots in synchrony. In contrast, if you wait until later in the summer, some beetles will be deep inside the shoot, some beetles will be dispersing; some will be beginning tunnels and so forth. If you are enrolled in the Compliance Program, be sure to use an approved insecticide such as chlorpyrifos (Lorsban, Whirlwind, Yuma, etc) or cyfluthrin (Baythroid).
