Many of you have had issues with cereal leaf beetle in small grains. In the late 1960s and 1970s, USDA released a parasitoid the controlled cereal leaf beetle at very high levels. It was established and did a good job on control for many decades. In some parts of NYS there are very low levels of these parasitoids. We are looking to reestablish them in those areas.
In 2020 NYS IPM (Jaime Cummings) conducted a survey on the percent parasitism of cereal leaf beetle larvae in several areas of the state. These are as follows:
Cereal leaf beetle parasitism data summary from 2020.
| Location | county | collection date | crop | # larvae collected | % parasitized |
| Livingston | Columbia | 4-Jun | conventional oats | 76 | 0 |
| Livingston | Columbia | 4-Jun | organic spring wheat | 71 | 0 |
| Livingston | Columbia | 4-Jun | conventional spring barley | 64 | 0 |
| Livingston | Columbia | 4-Jun | organic winter barley | 58 | 3.5 |
| Valatie | Columbia | 4-Jun | conventional winter wheat | 10 | 10 |
| Valatie | Columbia | 4-Jun | conventional oats | 46 | 23.9 |
| Ithaca | Tompkins | 10-Jun | conventional winter wheat | 77 | 2.6 |
| Trumansburg | Tompkins | 15-Jun | conventional winter wheat | 62 | 0 |
| Seneca Falls | Seneca | 11-Jun | conventional winter wheat | 14 | 0 |
| Baldwinsville | Onondaga | 12-Jun | conventional winter wheat | 128 | 0 |
| Rose | Onondaga | 12-Jun | conventional winter wheat | 100 | 0 |
| Baldwinsville | Onondaga | 12-Jun | conventional winter wheat | 83 | 0 |
| Baldwinsville | Onondaga | 12-Jun | conventional winter wheat | 79 | 0 |
| Shortsville | Ontario | 17-Jun | conventional winter wheat | 98 | 0 |
| Aurora | Cayuga | 24-Jun | Conventional spring barley | 20 | 0 |
| Ithaca | Tompkins | 24-Jun | conventional spring oats | 77 | 0 |
As seen in the table most areas of the state are very low. We are looking to conduct the same survey in 2021 as well as continuing to develop a parasitoid insectary refuge on the Cornell Farm in Aurora. This can help us reestablish the parasitoid in areas of the state that might need them. If you have cereal leaf beetle in your fields please let Ken Wise (klw24@cornell.edu) or your area specialist know and we can come and collect them. We will also let you know the rates of parasitism of the beetles in your fields.
