By David Moseley, Stephenson, Daniel O., Levy, Ronnie, Gravois, Kenneth, Price, Randy R., Padgett, Guy B., Kerns, Dawson, Kerns, Shelly, Miller, Donnie K., Vieira, Leandro, Villegas, James M., Tubana, Brenda S.
LSU AgCenter
As we move into August we expect to see looper numbers increase in soybeans. These insects do not feed on pods, but cause injury by defoliating the plants, so relatively high numbers of loopers can be tolerated compared with pod-feeding insects. Treatment is recommended between R1 to R6 when defoliation reaches 20% or when looper numbers reach 19 per 25 sweeps. It is often suggested to ignore smaller worms (<1/2 inch) in counts because many will be culled by predators and entomopathogens.