The bean leaf beetle, Cerotoma trifurcata (Forster) (Coleoptera: Chrysomeli
dae), is a major insect pest of soybean in Nebraska and throughout much of
the Midwest. This insect overwinters in the adult stage in litter in wooded
areas such as shelterbelts. Historically, crop producers have been unsure
of the merits of shelterbelts, especially if nearby crops are more likely t
o be infested by insect pests as a result. In this study, bean leaf beetle
adults were sampled during the season by visually counting the number of be
etles found on soybean plants early in the season and by sweep net sampling
once plants were at the V4 stage (approximately 0.33 m tall). Sampling was
done in 1997 and 1998 at the University of Nebraska Agricultural Research
and Development Center in Saunders Co. in east-central Nebraska. Beetle cou
nts were compared between shelterbelt-protected and -unprotected fields, in
general, bean leaf beetles were more numerous in 1997 than in 1998, with a
bundance peaks occurring in late-July and early-September in both years. Th
ere were significant differences in bean leaf beetle counts from protected
and unprotected fields on only three of the 11 and four of the 13 sampling
dates in 1997 and 1998, respectively. On the sampling dates when significan
t differences were found, two of three in 1997 and three of four in 1998 ha
d higher bean leaf beetle abundance in the protected soybean fields. The re
sults of this study indicate a tendency for more bean leaf beetles in shelt
erbelt-protected soybean fields when differences are found, but beetle numb
ers were not significantly different between protected and unprotected fiel
ds on the majority of sample dates in the two years of this study. This stu
dy also reconfirms the presence of two generations of the bean leaf beetle
in Nebraska.