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Dr. Rodney Cooper and his team with the USDA-ARS in Wapato, Wash. have been monitoring overwintering populations of potato psyllids on matrimony vine since 2014. The number of potato psyllids they find overwintering is a good way to predict the arrival time and relative size of psyllid populations in potato fields later in the year.
They collected only one potato psyllid from their regular monitoring sites in February and none when they looked again in mid-March. Dr. Cooper also noted finding a lot of spiders, which was the case in previous low potato psyllid years.
Based on these observations, they are expecting a low-pressure season for potato psyllids, but they will continue to monitor the situation.
