Soybean row crops are a staple of Maryland’s agricultural system, but they are under siege by a growing array of destructive, adversarial pests like beetles and corn earworm caterpillars. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture 2024 state overview, Maryland planted about 495,000 acres of soybeans, and with a value of nearly $200 million to the state’s economy, even modest reductions in yield caused by pests can translate into serious economic losses for growers.
To help farmers defend against these pests, Hayden Schug, Charles County Agriculture & Food Systems Educator with University of Maryland Extension (UME), has released a new scouting field guide for producers to identify pests before they become a problem. The updated publication, called “Common Soybean Pests in Maryland (FS‑2025‑0759),” is the latest evolution of what began as fact-sheets authored by Galen Dively in the 1980s, and represents the go-to resource for soybean producers in Maryland for more than 40 years.
“Farmers should read this before the season starts,” said Schug, whose background is in entomology and Integrated Pest Management. “Now is the time that growers should be thinking about these things in preparation for this year’s plantings.”
The new revision of the guide retains the classic pests that producers have fought for decades while updating their biology, seasonal timing, and adding high-quality photography to help identify pests emerging in Maryland fields. “This new publication is meant to be a producer’s first stop,” Schug said. “This resource gives you broad strokes and once you know what you’re dealing with, you can dive deeper into treatment methods.”
The updated field guide recognizes that pest pressure is always changing based on climate, weather, and many other factors, and this is the only guide developed for soybean pests specifically, giving a detailed timeline graphic to assist producers in identifying potential problems.
“Things have changed so much since the ‘80s,” Schug said. “We have new insects, new chemicals and treatments, new cultural controls; it was time to update our scouting materials.” Schug’s new publication builds on decades of research, but brings it squarely into the 21st century.
What makes this guide especially valuable:
- Comprehensive grouping: Pests are organized into five broad categories — soil-inhabiting pests, defoliators, defoliating caterpillars, flower/pod/seed feeders, and “other pests.” This makes field scouting and identification easier and more intuitive.
- Detailed pest biology and lifecycle: For each pest, the guide outlines typical timing (when they appear during the growing season), their damage symptoms (both above and below ground), and their lifecycle — helping growers plan scouting, management, and rotations more effectively.
- Updated context for modern threats: By incorporating recent observations of pest distribution and behavior, the guide helps growers recognize and respond to pests that may not have been significant in the 1980s—or even five years ago.
For soybean growers across Maryland the guide is a valuable early-warning and decision-making tool. When pests go undetected or unmanaged, yield losses can erode profits and stability for growers. Even a small drop in yield per acre — for example due to root damage from nematodes or defoliation from bean leaf beetle — on hundreds of thousands of acres can translate to millions of dollars in lost farm income across the state.
By giving producers the tools to identify pests early, understand when and how they are active, and choose effective, sensible management strategies, the new guide helps prevent unnecessary losses — without over-relying on pesticides.
For growers interested in accessing this resource, the full 2025 fact sheet is published at https://extension.umd.edu/resource/common-soybean-pests-maryland-fs-2025-0759/.