Bean leaf beetles have grabbed the attention of many soybean producers and field agronomists across Iowa this spring. Rayda Krell and Jeff Bradshaw in the Department of Entomology swept alfalfa near Ames the last week of May and collected 725 beetles in 50 sweeps. Beetle counts also have been very high in some soybean fields and insecticides have been widely used to manage the populations. I have received questions about alternate methods of insect pest management. During the past winter, I spoke to several soybean farmers that were going to delay planting as a cultural method of reducing the impact of this pest.