Fires in the South, flooding in the North. In one part of the country we're talking with turf managers about managing heat and drought stress and in another we're already discussing disease management strategies. I begin to wonder how will this crazy weather impact Cranefly hatching?
Whilst July was a fairly lacklustre month for any exciting weather with very little stressful conditions - couple it with May, June and the start of August's weather and we start to put together a very interesting picture.
The first half of August has delivered a heatwave and excessive rainfall and has really compounded the weather split across the country.
South / East - very dry and hot - Highlighted by the recent fires at Chobham common Take a look at this Sky sports footage if you haven't seen it.
West / North - much cooler, wetter and seemingly catching a lot of additional rainfall in the form of thunderstorms on already wet ground, resulting in flooding and serious damage.
Traditionally we have been taught that the Cranefly hatch is during Mid to late August however the last 2 years of tracking what actually happens with PestTracker we've learnt that it has been much closer to the end of September.
With Acelepryn applications being highly dependent on hatching patterns it's really important we watch closely whats going on.
With such a clear split in weather across the UK It will be fascinating to see how much the climate impacts the Crane Flies hatching pattern?
If ever there was a year to see a difference this is it.
I'll now clear the Spring hatching Cranefly sightings from the map which should give us a really clear picture of the Autumn hatch.
Keep logging those sightings on PestTracker and we'll see what we can learn.
