March 15, 2011

UNL Entomologists Tom Hunt, Jeff Bradshaw and I are participating in a regional extension group, Northern Plains IPM Working Group, composed of entomologists and plant pathologists from South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska, and funded by the USDA’s North Central IPM Center. Our initial goal has been to develop an online IPM Guide suitable for the Northern Plains states. Our initial focus has been on soybean IPM.

The Northern Plains IPM Guide is now publicly accessible through www.NPIPM.org. The Guide has 24 articles on soybean insects with a section on soybean diseases soon to follow. The guide is meant to serve as regionwide extension resource.

The Northern Plains IPM Guide is also available as an iPhone/iPod touch application at http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/npipm-soybean-guide/id422404212?mt=8. The iPhone application features a dichotomous identification key of soybean insects found in the guide. This application is free to download via iTunes and allows for offline browsing of the guide in iPhone/iPod touch. An Android  version of the Guide is under development and is expected to be available in a month or two.

As new materials are incorporated into the Northern Plains IPM Guide, the mobile application versions will continue to be updated.

Bob Wright, Tom Hunt, and Jeffrey Bradshaw
UNL Extension Entomologists