There is a lot going on with the insect population inside your canola field and, believe it or not, it’s not all bad. The truth is that some of those little guys can be doing you a huge favour. Beneficial insect populations within your canola can oftentimes keep insect pests at levels that don’t require control measures. That’s why it’s important to seriously consider economic threshold numbers in canola with beneficial insect populations in mind. Spraying under those threshold numbers kills those beneficials and negates any control measures that come in the following year. The elastic ability of canola to bounce back from mild feeding damage allows producers a little more wiggle room to evaluate whether or not beneficial insects are doing their job. That doesn’t mean that farmers shouldn’t spray when numbers reach threshold. What it does mean is that it’s important for producers to be able to identify that beneficial activity in the field to know when it makes economic sense to spray or not to spray.
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In this episode of the Canola School, we talk to our resident insect specialist Scott Meers. We talked to Scott about what control beneficials can offer, if it’s possible to scout for them and how important it is to know whether or not we’re at our economic threshold before we spray.
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