Hot, dry weather isn’t letting up for many areas of Ontario, and the impact of heat is showing up in wheat yields. In this week’s Wheat Pete’s Word, host Peter Johnson has got some timely reminders for farmers as we head into the middle of summer. From leafhoppers in alfalfa, to peak flight of western… Read More
A good parasite doesn’t kill its host, but a good parasitoid does. What’s the difference and why? In this episode of the Pests & Predators podcast, host Shaun Haney is joined by Tyler Wist, research scientist and field crop entomologist with Agriculture Agri-food Canada at Saskatoon, Sask., to explore the role of parasitoids in field… Read More
While you’re out scouting your peas, lentils, or faba beans for disease at early flowering, have a look for pea aphids too. “Flowering is a good time to be scouting for aphids in peas,” says John Gavloski, provincial entomologist with Manitoba Agriculture and Resource Development. “The most damage they can do is going to occur… Read More
The Prairie Pest Monitoring Network (PPMN) has launched a new website to help farmers and agronomists predict insect risks, monitor insect populations, and find information to help scout for pests, time their scouting activities, and to make decisions about using chemical controls. The site, Prairiepest.ca, expands the functionality of the previous PPMN blog, says Jennifer… Read More
Wheat stem sawfly can cause a lot of damage to a wheat yield, and there aren’t a lot of options to control it. Enter: Bracon sephi, an orange wasp that is less than a quarter inch long. The way that this small wasp attacks wheat stem sawfly sounds like something out of science fiction, but… Read More
For this special Canada Day edition of Wheat Pete’s Word, host Peter Johnson has got answers to your timely agronomic questions. The good news is there are no alerts this week, but that doesn’t mean you can let the throttle off scouting — there are insect pests creeping in and populations can grow very quickly!… Read More
Not all grasshoppers are pests, though few farmers would likely say they enjoy seeing them when they walk a field. Grasshoppers can — and do — cause significant economic damage to crops in high numbered years, sometimes wiping out entire fields, but these insects also play a large role in the insect world as food…. Read More
Every field is an ecosystem — complete with hosts, habitat, pests, and predators. Farmers are focused on fostering the best conditions for the desired crop and are keenly aware of threats, such as insect pests. But, as with any ecosystem, the removal of any one part of the system has dramatic impacts on others. In… Read More
It’s time for T3 fungicides to control fusarium head blight in Ontario’s winter wheat, but growers may also have another troublemaker in the cereal crop that they’ll need to tackle this time of year. There have been growing reports of cereal aphids in the Ontario winter wheat crop this spring, and growers need will to… Read More
Weed control questions, millipede feeding, and a crusting quandary — it must be early June! This week’s Wheat Pete’s Word is a little longer than usual because there is just so much going on and so many great questions rolling in. Host Peter Johnson has got the answers this week to everything from tufted vetch… Read More
We’re back with the latest episode of Pests & Predators, and on this episode, you’ll hear from Dr. Meghan Vankosky. She is a research scientist in the field crop entomology department with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), based in Saskatoon, Sask. In addition to the research Vankosky does for AAFC, she is also the co-chair… Read More
There was a time when many people thought of field insects like weeds — all bad. Weeds steal yield, so we try to eliminate all or mostly all of those weeds. Now through many years of research, the way we look at insects in a crop has begun to shift away from this all-bad, all-must-go… Read More
An announced joint research project led by the University of Calgary has unleashed anger from many farmers in Western Canada. On Sunday, a tweet posted by the Canola Council of Canada referred to a joint research project entitled “Surveillance networks for beneficial insects II: Quantifying the canola yield effect of wetlands, shelterbelts and other insect… Read More
Will 2019 be a soybean aphid year? With a short, late-developing crop that lacks a dense canopy, growers will have to be on the look out for the minuscule, light green, pear-shaped pests, says Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs entomologist Tracey Baute. With smaller plants, it doesn’t take as many aphids to… Read More
While Ontario struggles to dry out, the lucky ones in Western Canada are rejoicing in some meaningful rainfall. It’s been a week of planting, watching weeds grow, and haying in some parts of Ontario, too. What does a little rain mean for Western Canada? Possibly more nitrogen. What do cool temperatures mean for corn in… Read More
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