 This is the Sugar Beet Report, bringing you the latest information from NDSU throughout the Sugar Beet growing season. The Sugar Beet Root Maggot is making an impact again this year, with some areas in the valley under intense pressure. Mark Bautel, NDSU Extension Entomologist, has the latest update concerning the Sugar Beet Maggot. Mark, it's officially summer. What's going on with the Sugar Beet Root Maggot? The late spring warm-up after the cold finally went away really got the flies going, so we got off to a very quick fly-emergence cycle. This year our peaks, and this would be valley-wide, peaked about one week earlier than historical averages as a result of those warm temps. There are still a few flies flying around, and a little bit of egg laying happening yet, but really the insect as a whole, I would say, is the larvae very actively feeding on Sugar Beet Roots at this time. That activity is going to probably peak in the next week or so, a week to 10 days, but it's going to continue at fairly high levels or high rates for another week or so beyond that and then persist well into August. Are there symptoms growers can watch for in the fields? Yes. Chiefly, it would be wilting and dying plants, unfortunately. That's going to become very evident in under-protected fields that maybe didn't get hit with an insecticide or either lacking or had a lesser performing product on for protection. Those fields are going to continue to wither and probably many have some dead plants as well as the hot weather resumes, and that's looking like it's going to be the case in the forecast. We're having some spotting rainfalls that are occurring, so those events may actually save some fields, and that would be sort of through two actions. One is, of course, rain is better for plant health, and then it also activates insecticides. The fly pressure has been pretty intense in some parts of the valley this year. Where have the maggots been most challenging? The traditional areas of the central and northern valley from about Thompson to all the way to near the Canadian border have been very high again this year. Last year was a record, a 16-year record high for fly activity, but they're pretty bad this year as well. Some of our worst areas, actually the Saban Baker, Minnesota area is the highest in the valley. It has no close second. There's been extreme pressure in that area. Other traditional areas of St. Thomas, Cavalier, Bathgate, Grafton, as well as down to Grand Forks, East Grand Forks, Thompson, and Reynolds have been problematic to this year. And then we also have fairly high fly activity that has been recorded in the Crookston, Warren area, and all the way up actually on the east side of the river in the Stephen, Argyle, and Donaldson areas as well. Can this year's problems guide us with making management decisions for next year? Yes. Where basically in the areas where the maggots succeeded this year, those areas are going to set the stage for the battle for next year. Unfortunately, as I've said before, we have a pretty major sugar beetroot maggot problem, and it's nearly as bad as it's ever been. This year's hotspots are good indicators for what to do next year, where the problems are going to be next year. As I've mentioned before too, we've had the NDSU and American Crystal collaboration on root maggot fly counts. We're sampling again well over 100 fields this year, three days per week, and that'll give us a good idea of where those hotspots were this year and then lead into the forecast for the coming year. Mark, do you have anything else you'd like to add? One very important thing I would just put in would be a plug for our winter grower seminars. It's very important, if you're in an affected area either with this pest or another management problem, I encourage you to attend the winter sugar beet grower seminars. 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.