I’ve started to receive a few reports of damage from early season caterpillar pests, including true armyworm, black cutworm, and variegated cutworm. Concentrate your scouting efforts on fields that border wheat, other small grains, or had a grass cover crop for armyworm, and fields that had sub-optimal winter annual weed control or a legume cover crop for the cutworm species. If you find larvae, note the sizes – larger (> 1 inch) larvae do the most damage, but are also the closest to pupating and “cycling out” of the damaging stage. Populations of larvae with mixed sizes or that include predominantly smaller larvae will be with us for longer.