UNL research associate gives update on local pests

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Ribeiro covers four types of insects, problems in detail

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  • Matheus Ribeiro, a post-doctoral research associate at the Etnomology Department at the University of Nebraksa-Lincoln, gave a corn and soybean insect update at Ag Day on Jan. 31 covering how to manage various pests and to identify the damage.
    Matheus Ribeiro, a post-doctoral research associate at the Etnomology Department at the University of Nebraksa-Lincoln, gave a corn and soybean insect update at Ag Day on Jan. 31 covering how to manage various pests and to identify the damage.
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Matheus Ribeiro, a post-doctoral research associate at the Etnomology Department at the University of Nebraksa-Lincoln, gave a corn and soybean insect update at Ag Day on Jan. 31 covering how to manage various pests and to identify the damage.
Ribeiro, who specializes in insecticide toxicology, crop protection and cropping systems according to the UNL website, started by saying that many times it is more than one type of insect that eats away at a field. 
“We have grasshoppers, soybeans looper (moth), cabbage looper (moth), corn rootworm and a couple of others like woolly-bear caterpillars,” Ribeiro listed as examples before providing even more insects.
He stated that fields can handle a certain level of defoliation before a huge loss of yield depending on the stage: 30 percent while vegetative and 20 percent while in the later reproductive stage.

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