Author: Raul Villanueva
Planning Unit: Entomology
Major Program: Grains
Outcome: Intermediate Outcome
A soybean farmer from Lyon Co. has cooperated with my Dectes program since 2019. My frequent visits to his farm have strengthened our relationship. In 2022 by mid-June, he reported about 40 acres lost to a snail attack. I visited the farm, and learned he was ready to replant without solving the cause of the problem, this is, the high snail population. I recommended him to apply molluscicide to reduce the snail population firsthand and then replant. He followed my recommendations and was able to have a good soybean yield. This farmer also allowed me to take advantage of this snail outbreak to carry out molluscicide efficacy test in an area of his soybean field. Snail attacks are not common in soybean fields, this outbreak caused high losses however my experience with slug management contributed to solve this problem opportunely.