Not many Russian wheat aphids in the green bridge

Researchers from cesar and SARDI have been monitoring key green bridge locations for Russian wheat aphid (Diuraphis noxia, RWA) over spring, summer and autumn as part of a GRDC investment.

Observations in November 2018 showed Russian wheat aphid was present all over its known distribution area on many different grasses and generally in high abundance. Barley grass, brome grasses and volunteer wheat and barley were harboring the highest numbers.

Fast-forward a couple of months, and monitoring during the drier, hotter period of January and February revealed a notable decrease in detectability of Russian wheat aphid – as preferred grass hosts became rare, aphid populations became too low to detect at most sites. Only in higher rainfall cooler zones, such as Tasmania, did researchers observe an increase in detections.

Green bridge surveillance has also been undertaken during May, and preliminary work suggest that Russian wheat aphid populations are still very low. Not only were the populations of grass-host plants decimated by the hot and dry summer conditions, but Russian wheat aphid populations have also suffered.

It appears that Russian wheat aphid populations are not yet showing signs of recovery during preliminary early autumn checks of highly irrigated areas, and areas that had received summer rainfall.

At this stage, finding any Russian wheat aphid is extremely difficult.

Only where preferred hosts, including volunteer cereals, canary grass, and enneapogin grass, survive due to available water (seeps, dams, irrigation and higher rainfall areas) have researcher’s occasionally been able to detect small populations.

Autumn surveys are continuing in Victoria and NSW, in light of recent rainfall. As with the beginning of the 2018 winter cropping season, Russian wheat aphid pressure seems again very low and risk of colonisation of crops early in the season seems minimal.

Acknowledgements

This article has been adapted from ‘Managing Russian wheat aphid risk – early season considerations’. Click here to view the full article.

Cover image: Photo by Andrew Weeks, Cesar Australia

What is Pestfacts south-eastern?

PestFacts south-eastern keeps growers and advisers informed about invertebrate pests and beneficials in broadacre crops and pastures during the winter-cropping season in Victoria and southern New South Wales.

Subscribe

Never miss a beat. Get articles, advice and more straight in your inbox.

Since 2019 PestFacts south-eastern has been running through IPMforGrains: Best Practice Insect Pest Management, a project delivered by the National Pest Information Network (Cesar Australia, DPIRD, QDAF, NSW DPI, and SARDI). This project aims to provide grain growers and advisors with information on invertebrate grain pest occurrence and equip industry with the knowledge needed to implement integrated pest management practices. This initiative is a GRDC investment and includes in-kind contributions from all project partner organisations.

The online PestFacts south-eastern collection also includes a selection of articles published between 2015 – 2018 when the service was run through a previous GRDC investment, The National Pest Information Service.

PestFacts south-eastern is supported by