 Hello, my name is Jan Knodl, I'm an Extension Entomologist for North Dakota State University. This video describes scouting for the Red Sunflower Seed Weevil, which is an economically important insect past of sunflower in North Dakota. Red Sunflower Seed Weevil is about an eighth of an inch long and reddish brown in color. The larvae consume about a third of the kernel. This reduces the seed weight and oil content of the sunflower. For scouting you want to start when the sunflower is in the R4 stage, when you can see the yellow ray petals on the face. And you want to continue until you make a spray decision, or the sunflower becomes R5.7. The .7 refers to 70% of the area on the face of the sunflower as having florets on. For scouting you want to check at least four locations in the field. You want to use a X pattern, avoid sampling the edges of the field, walk in about 75 feet and then randomly select five heads. And you can use mosquito repellent to spray the head. This will force the weevils to move up from the back. You can see there's one right there on the face of the head. Then use the table to estimate the total number of weevils per plant. To decide whether to use insecticide to control the red sunflower seed weevil, it's necessary to determine the economic threshold for this year. The economic threshold is based on the cost of insecticide per acre, the market price of sunflower and dollars per pound, and the plant population per acre. Given the cost of insecticide between 8 and 10 dollars per acre, the economic threshold is near 4 to 6 weevils per head this year. The optimal time for insecticide treatment is when the sunflowers reach the R5.1 stage like this one here when you have the florets on the outer edge of the face. And you also want about 30% of the plants in the field at this stage. For more information on red sunflower seed weevil, please go to the following links on the NDSU Extension Service website. Thanks for joining me and learning how to scout for the red sunflower seed weevil. Using economic thresholds and scouting protocols are important principles of integrated pest management.