Field Insights

Does Your Pest Program Pass Inspection? Your Pest Preparation Blueprint

Better crop protection starts with a thorough inspection to identify threats and inform solutions.

May 2025 | BY SYNGENTA THRIVE 2 Min Read

Does Your Pest Program Pass Inspection? Your Pest Preparation Blueprint

May 2025 | BY BY SYNGENTA THRIVE 2 Min Read

Homes must be built on a strong foundation and kept clean and pest-free to ensure its occupants can thrive — and so should your crops! It’s time to inspect your crop protection program and fill in the gaps before problems arise.

Waterhemp
- A grower’s #1 nemesis, producing as many as one million seeds per plant
Palmer amaranth
- Can produce as many as 500,000 seeds that thrive in minimum tillage fields
Giant ragweed
- Can cause up to 50% yield reduction in soybeans

Kochia
- Drought tolerant, so it is competitive in tough environments
Wild oat
- Seeds can mix with wheat grains at harvest, resulting in price penalties

Tar spot
- Can cause yield losses of up to 60 bu/A
Pythium
- The #1 seedling disease threat in corn

Phytophthora
- Causes an estimated 25 million bushels of yield loss annually
Pythium
- Can infect soybeans within 90 minutes of planting
Sudden Death Syndrome (SDS)
- Can result in flower and/or pod abortion, reducing yield potential
Frogeye leaf spot
- Can cause up to 35% yield loss

Stripe rust
- Produces spores which embed in plant leaves, inhibiting photosynthesis
Fusarium head blight
- One of the most economically devastating wheat diseases

Corn rootworm
- The billion dollar beetle causes lodging, which reduces standability

Stink bugs
- Feed on developing seeds, causing significant direct crop losses
Soybean cyst nematodes (SCN)
- Steal nearly 90 million bushels and over $1.5 billion annually from U.S. growers

Wireworms
- If wireworms are not addressed, up to 100% yield loss has been observed in the Pacific Northwest, and inconsistent stands can have consequences, such as replanting or weeds filling in bare spots

CROP PROTECTION PLANNING PUNCH LIST Think like an inspector — based on your field’s history, what problems can you expect?
Weeds

What are my most problematic weeds?
Did I have any weed escapes or practices that could have spread seed?
Does my herbicide program provide overlapping residual through crop canopy closure?

Diseases

What diseases were most prevalent last year?
Am I being proactive in disease management?
Besides disease mitigation, how else can fungicides benefit my crops?

Insects

Which insect species were present in my field or neighboring soybean fields last year?
Have I considered in the impact that low levels of multiple insect species may have on yields?

Now that you have your list, it’s time to identify what you can do to prevent them from compounding into bigger issues. Click here for Crop Protection Solutions.

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