If you’re growing field peas, taking action against pea weevils is vital.

Fortunately, SARDI releases pea weevil models that predict when pea weevils have begun making their way into pea crops in our South Australian regions.

So, what do you do when the SARDI warning bells ring? Well, you definitely don’t want to let them get into your pods and damage your yields. Once they get into pods, they are protected and extremely hard to kill.

So, how do you monitor your crops and take action? Use our 3-step plan: Sweep, Count, and Spray.

1. Sweep:

Every 5-7 days, go into the crop with a sweep net and get insect samples. Tip: It’s best to concentrate around the edges of the crop, 2m into the crop, near trees and hibernation sites.

2. Count:

Check the net for bugs every 25 sweeps. Check what insects you find, count and make a note.

3. Spray (if needed):

Spraying will be necessary if you find an average of 2 adults per 25 sweeps, over 5 to 10 sample spots. Timing is essential. Adults must be killed before they lay their eggs for effective control. Use an insecticide such as Trojan or Alphacyphermethrin, but check with your agronomist.

Why you need to act immediately:

Once egg-laying has commenced, approximately 75% or more of the weevil population is likely to have emerged and moved into crops. If you have swept and your bug counts have reached the spray threshold, you should spray an insecticide, such as FMC’s Trojan.
For later crops that have not yet formed pods, you can wait until the first flowers are withered. If thresholds are exceeded, spraying a 20-40 metre width border is the most cost-effective way to get pea weevil under control as adults will invade from the border.

If you need help identifying insects or want one of our agronomists to take a look, give them a call today.