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
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
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
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
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