Soybean Aphids

So have you been finding soybean aphids in your fields? I've been scouting fields this summer to help with the information feed into PA PIPE to help them forecast the areas of greater and less pressure this growing season. So far around Chambersburg the populations of soybean aphids have not been near threshold, however I have seen some fields in the Greencastle/Mercersburg area that would have appeared to be at or near thresholds. Soybean aphids are worse in the odd years then the even ones so 2009 should be a year to watch for, however the populations have been spotty. If you have aphids at the threshold (250 aphids per plant on 80% of plants sampled) do you always spray? It would appear that if you are at R6 or later it is not economical to spray so you may want to let it go. Additionally if you don't want to do the old form of scouting (counting up to 250 aphids) a new speed scouting protocol has been developed by the University of Minnesota to see if you are at threshold or not. Go take a look at those fields and I'd be happy to help you if you have any questions on what you find.