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Bayer Assist

For friendly informed advice about Bayer CropScience products, call Bayer Assist on:

0845 6092266

(0900-1715 weekdays)

Pests 

Pollen beetle  

Pollen beetle

Meligethes spp.

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Adults emerge during late March through to May. Initial feeding is around overwintering sites and migration into crops occurs on warm days, they fly well when temperatures reach at least 15°C. Adult feeding leads to bud abortion, eggs are laid in flower buds and these hatch after 7 - 10 days. Autumn flowering brassicas are frequently damaged by 2nd generation.

Monitoring
Serious damage occurs at green - yellow bud while feeding damage on open flowers is less important. Pollen beetle may invade WOSR too late to cause serious damage. In contrast, Spring OSR begins to flower when pollen beetle activity is peaking and with fewer flowers is much less able to compensate for damage. Accordingly, in conventionally bred spring varieties the threshold of beetles per plant is about 1/3 of that for WOSR. In hybrid varieties the threshold falls further according to the proportion of pollinators, usually 20%.


 

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