The Bick Lab in the UW-Madison Department of Entomology, UW-Madison Extension, and Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) are partnering to release timely insect emergence and trapping trends, based on DATCP trapping efforts to Wisconsin farmers, landowners, and crop consultants.

This new alert service aims to serve as a timely “heads up” for insect pests. This resource is intended to help guide farmers’, landowners’ and crop consultants’ timing for checking pest traps, reduce resources spent scouting for insects, and reduce injury caused to crop due to insect pest testing and identification.

Those who sign up to receive insect pest alerts can elect to receive updates for northern, central, and/or southern Wisconsin by text. A longer form of the insect pest updates will also be shared online at go.wisc.edu/InsectPestAlert and link to important resources from UW–Madison Extension and beyond.

Dr. Emily Bick, Assistant Professor of Precision Pest Ecology and Extension Specialist for field and forage crops at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said, “I hope this service, in conjunction to scouting, enables more timely, data-based integrated pest management decisions. For insect pests, timing interventions, like insecticides, correctly ensures maximum success of the intervention and better protection of crop yield.”