Influence of Tillage Practices and Row Spacing on Soybean Insect Populations in Louisiana

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Abstract
Insects were monitored by the sweep-net method for 2 years in conventionally tilled and no-till soybeans planted in narrow and wide row spacings to determine the effects of different cultural practices on soybean insect populations. Season-long differences in population densities due to the influences of tillage practices were detected for several species at each of three locations. However, the banded cucumber beetle, Diabrotica balteata (LeConte), was the only species whose populations showed a consistent response at each location. Differential emergence of teneral adults of the banded cucumber beetle and bean leaf beetle, Cerotoma trifurcata (Forster), between conventional tillage and no-till culture at one location indicated an ovipositional preference for the tilled soybeans or a higher egg/larval mortality in the no-till soybeans. A leafhopper, Scaphytopius acutus (Say), an important vector implicated in the transmission of two soybean diseases in Louisiana, was the insect species most affected by differences in row spacings, with larger populations found on the narrower row spacing.