Spotted on the wing …

As we come into warmer temperatures, which is great for growth, be on the look out for sightings of our big two UK insect pests (for turf) crane fly and chafers. Please log any sightings of adults onthe Syngenta Pest Tracker (www.syngentaturf.co.uk/turf-pest-tracker)

It's really easy to log your sightings, just select the pest you've seen, enter the postcode and click submit.

Done and dusted, and you've done your bit of good for the day!

The data we collect in Pest Tracker is instrumental in supporting any EA (Emergency Authorisation) of Acelepryn for chafers (which is almost there) and crane fly which we hope to get later in the year. These Emergency Authorisations of products use are only possible when we justify that the industry needs them, and the pest tracker data helps us to prove that.

The trend for Crane Fly looks to be following that of 2021 so far so we should be seeing the first flight around now, with the peak flight expected in Autumn, as seen in the graph from previous years.

Like all insects these pests are cold blooded, so very dependent on temperature for activity levels. The warmer it gets to more veraciously they'll feed, racing to eat enough to be able to pupate and transition to adulthood. But whilst a flush of warm weather will drive on the appetites of grubs, it should also give us a shunt in plant growth to help mask the damage being done until they take flight and start the cycle anew.

These guys don't get logged until they get in the air, but always interesting to see the size differences even at the same site
Much further South I managed to grab this chap before it flew off... (not a great crane fly picture)

As we wait for full approval of Acelepryn, thank you to all those who have engaged with pesttracker over the years, helping us to deliver the best advice we can on application timings with the Emergency Authorisations.

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