June 8, 2007
University of Nebraska-Lincoln entomologists monitor black light traps throughout the summer to track activity of moths that may be economically important. While moth captures cannot predict economic damage in individual fields, this information can be useful as a guide to which insects may be locally abundant. Moth flights are an early warning of economic damage that may occur. The moth stage lays eggs which later hatch out into plant feeding caterpillars.
Light trap data are now available online at http://entomology.unl.edu/fldcrops/ for traps at Clay Center, Concord and North Platte.
Bob Wright
Extension Entomologist, Lincoln