 This is the SugarBeat Report, bringing you the latest information from NDSU throughout the SugarBeat growing season. SugarBeat growers have a tiny adversary in the form of the SugarBeat root maggot. This year's numbers continue to soar. Mark Botel, NDSU Extension entomologist, has the latest information concerning the SugarBeat maggot. Mark, last year growers faced a record high SugarBeat maggot population. What's the root maggot situation look like this year? All fly activity has increased a lot in recent days. Some of the worst hot spots we've recorded in our monitoring program include St. Thomas, Crystal, Auburn, Voss, Oakwood, Grand Forks, Thompson, and Reynolds in North Dakota, and Saban, Ada, Crookston, East Grand Forks, Donaldson, and Oslo in Minnesota. What's your model telling us right now? Have we reached peak fly? Yes, most areas should have reached peak by now, probably between June 3rd and 7th, and of course the insects development is impacted by heat units, so the Southern Valley typically peaks two to three days earlier than fields in the Northern Valley. Recent stormy weather that we've had and is in our forecast for the next couple of days has probably kept a lot of flies down and into the fields in which they overwintered, so activity is probably going to continue for a few more days with more flies pouring into fields over the next couple of days. With that in mind, what can growers do at this point? Well, it's going to be very important to be vigilant about monitoring fly presence in fields as well as monitoring the fly count web page online for the latest numbers on fly counts and those we update every Monday and Wednesday, Friday. And post emergence insecticides are still a possibility for hitting those hot spots. We've probably run out of time with post emergence granular insecticides, but liquid spray should work pretty well, especially if applied within two to three days. Ahead of peak fly is what we recommend, but they should still work pretty well applied within the next few days. Mark, is there anything else you'd like to add about the root maggot? Yes, I would just suggest that growers and crop advisers be very vigilant about monitoring fields at this point and the fly count website that I'd mentioned before over the next few days for potential upticks in fly activity and also be prepared and poised to quickly take action with insecticide applications if needed. Is there anything else going on with insect pests in the region? Well, I've had quite a few reports of cutworms in the Mindak growing area, so it's going to be important for the next couple of weeks to be monitoring fields for cutworm activity. Liquid sprayable insecticides, foliar applications of those materials should work pretty well. The pyrethroid insecticides are probably the best option at this point. We're working on experimentals, but that's a little ways off yet. Even applications of those foliar materials tend to work best. That's because cutworms are most active during overnight periods of the day of the 24-hour period when they're out feeding. A late afternoon to early evening application is going to work very well. I've also had reports of four-lined plant bugs showing up in the southern Minnesota growing area. They cause dark gray to almost black lesions on the leaves, and it's usually in patches. That injury is also patchy within the field. It's usually localized in long field margins, and they have a very wide host range, so they're not just going to be feeding on sugar beets. They feed on ornamental plants, even some tree species. I would say at this point injury in beet fields, and I should add too that they feed on a number of weed species. Injury in beet fields is not likely going to be sufficient to justify an insecticide application. If a producer chooses to do so, say they have significant injury, but it's more like a localized along the field margin or near a tree strip, a perimeter treatment should do a pretty good job in those localized areas. Thanks, Mark. Our guest has been Mark Botel, NDSU Extension Entomologist. This is the Sugar Beet Report, bringing you the latest information from NDSU throughout the Sugar Beet growing season.