Surveys have shown that Russian wheat aphid (RWA) is distributed throughout Australian cereal growing regions. While population numbers have declined over summer, preliminary data suggests their overall range may remain the same, due to green bridge reservoirs in towns and irrigated regions. It is advised to monitor for the aphid itself on green bridge hosts, particularly in favourable hosts like barley grass and brome grass, as classic RWA symptoms have been rarely observed on weed species over spring and summer. Volunteer cereals and weedy grasses (particularly barley and brome grasses) found within next season’s cereal paddocks should be controlled at least 2-3 weeks prior to sowing.

● To ensure seed treatments remain a long-term viable control option for RWA, growers are urged to use neonicotinoid seed treatments judiciously and according to the regional risk, and using the Find, Identify, Threshold, Enact (FITE) approach.