Diversity and abundance of arthropods in industrial hemp fields of Nebraska

Industrial hemp, Cannabis sativa, is in its second year as a commercially available crop in Nebraska.  Since this time, there has been a lot of interest in pest and beneficial arthropod populations that may be found in hemp, since this is currently unknown for Nebraska.  Finding potential pests is a high priority as industrial hemp is a high value crop with strict pesticide and growing requirements. This poster shows results of the first survey in this region of both pest and beneficial arthropod populations that are found associated with hemp.  Samples were collected from July-September in 2020 from one fiber cultivar field in North Platte, Nebraska.  Arthropods were collected at this location using sticky cards, pitfalls, sweep nets and visual inspections.  Arthropods were identified to the family level except for some pests and beneficials of interest that were identified to species. The most common beneficial arthropod taxa were Parasitoid wasps, Carabidae and Orius insidiosus. The most common potential pest taxa were Thysanoptera, Aphidae, and Cicadellidae. One identified pest of importance was the Eurasian hemp borer, Grapholita delineana (Walker), which was found throughout the season boring into stems and seeds. This preliminary survey has shown that industrial hemp has a diverse community of arthropods and that there is a high abundance of beneficial arthropods, particularly predators. The purpose of this research is to help Nebraska farmers who are considering the investment into industrial hemp and eventually contribute to a more complete knowledge of Integrated Pest Management for this crop.