On this episode of The Agronomists, host Lyndsey Smith is joined by Tracey Baute with Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness, and Tyler Wist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada to discuss early season insect management. On the list: wireworm, cutworms, flea beetles, and slugs; plus we dig in to pre-seeding selection impacts on wheat… Read More
Category: Flea Beetles
A valuable tool for managing insect pests, such as flea beetles and grasshoppers, is back in the toolbox for 2025. As reported earlier this month, Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) has effectively lifted a two-year ban on spraying insecticides containing lambda-cyhalothrin on crops that could be destined for livestock feed. Lambda-cy products, sold… Read More
Understanding the prevalence of flea beetles in a canola field can make a big difference when it comes to management decisions in that field. This number-one insect pest of canola can quickly multiply in number and — with the right environmental conditions — move from below to well-above an economic threshold in a single day…. Read More
The Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) has reinstated livestock grain feeding use for insecticides containing lambda-cyhalothrin. A regulatory announcement in late 2022 changed the labeled approvals for crops treated with lambda-cy products, and resulted in two growing seasons with restricted use and access for growers. Syngenta shared the reinstatement news today, noting that a label… Read More
Grasshoppers devastated many fields last year over large parts of the Prairies. Of the over 80 species of grasshoppers found on the Prairies, only four are pests — but in sufficient numbers they are a huge concern. After several years of building populations, the pest is still likely to be an issue this year but… Read More
The premise behind why a good healthy plant stand is important when battling flea beetles in canola is simple: the fewer beetles per plant, the less likely they’re going to damage more than 25 per cent of the total leaf area. In dry conditions, too much seed-placed fertilizer can hurt that plant stand and help… Read More
One of the most commonly-used tools for fighting insect pests will be missing from the toolbox in many situations on Canadian farms again in 2024. There’s been no change to the label for products that contain lambda-cyhalothrin, such as Matador and Silencer, heading into the 2024 growing season, says Ian Epp, agronomy specialist with the… Read More
Canola is an elastic, amazingly resilient plant, but it starts as a very tiny seed and emerges under threat of certain death by very hungry flea beetles. Setting up this crop for great yield is the typical combination of establishment, nutrition, and crop protection, but in this episode of The Agronomists, we dig in to… Read More
Early season pest pressure can be a huge drag on canola seedling survivability and producers’ pocket books. A seed treatment can be a useful tool in protecting tiny plants, and BASF is launching new treatment treatment stack options in the 2024 Invigor line up. Farmers growing InVigor hybrid canola likely noticed the shift in ’23… Read More
Advancements in RNA interference (RNAi) technology could soon unlock new tools for managing canola pests and pathogens, such as sclerotinia and flea beetles. RNAi — ribonucleic acid interference — involves targeting specific RNA sequences in a disease or pest, rather than targeting entire proteins or enzymes, as is the case with current pesticides. It’s a… Read More