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The nature of the crop makes it harder to scout for Western bean cutworm in edible beans than in corn, yet easier to find feeding damage after leaf-drop.
Crops

The economics of Western bean cutworm

For bean growers, it turns out this is a very different — and difficult — pest

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Reading Time: 5 minutes From year to year, edible bean growers face a variety of challenges, including some that are unique to their particular sector. In the past, they have had to deal with bean leaf beetles and potato leaf hoppers, as well as wireworms and seedcorn maggot. As with other field crops, each new growing season seems to […] Read more
The Elbe River at Oberrathen, southeast of Dresden. (CIA.gov)
Crops, Reuters

Germany plans to toughen conditions for insecticide use

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Reading Time: < 1 minute Berlin | Reuters — Germany plans to make it more difficult for farmers to use crop insecticides in a bid to preserve biodiversity, an environment ministry document showed. “Insect biomass has fallen by more than 75 per cent in the last 27 years in Germany,” according to the paper seen by Reuters on Wednesday, saying […] Read more
Pea leaf weevil has been spreading in Saskatchewan and Alberta in recent years. Seed treatment rather than foliar sprays is recommended for control.
Crops

Prairie insect outlook for 2018

Provincial websites offer a wealth of identification and monitoring information which is continually updated through the season

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Reading Time: 8 minutes With snow still on the ground as this article is written, it’s difficult to predict how conditions may change over the next few weeks as farmers approach seeding. That said, lower-than-average precipitation across the Prairies over the winter indicates it will take some excessive spring moisture to significantly change the dry conditions that seem likely […] Read more
SeCan says wheat midge tolerance saves producers $40 to $60 million per year.
Crops, Spring Wheat, Winter Wheat

Protect your midge-tolerant wheat

The midge-tolerance gene was found in the majority of SWS wheats in 2017. Refuge seed is required to keep this trait in play

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Reading Time: 3 minutes Producers should add refuge seed to most Canada Western Red Spring (CWRS) and Soft White Spring (SWS) wheat varieties in 2018 to prolong the longevity of the midge-tolerance Sm1 gene, says Todd Hyra, western business manager for seed marketing agency SeCan. Last spring, Canadian researchers discovered Sm1 in most SWS varieties, including AAC Indus, AC […] Read more
Seed dealers, agronomists and advisers are very vocal in 2017 about scouting for Western bean cutworm egg masses.
Corn, Crops

More than cutworms “bugged” corn crops in 2017

Pests in 2017 have been a more complicated picture, based largely on a mixed bag of weather-related challenges

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Reading Time: 5 minutes Coming out of winter and looking ahead to any growing season, it’s impossible to predict which insect pests will be the biggest challenge for growers. In 2001, for instance, soybean aphids first became a widespread issue for Ontario farmers, and the fear took such firm root that we’d have to deal with them in 2002 […] Read more
Photo: iStock
Reuters

U.S. senators seek ban on pesticide chlorpyrifos

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Reading Time: 2 minutes New York / Reuters – A group of Democratic senators hopes to ban a pesticide the U.S. government has greenlighted for use, according to a bill unveiled on Tuesday in a challenge to Republican President Donald Trump’s push to loosen environmental regulations. The bill, introduced by Senator Tom Udall of New Mexico, would outlaw chlorpyrifos, […] Read more
Are you ready to scout for and control flea beetles?
Canola, Crops

Are you ready to scout for and control flea beetles?

Flea beetles move fast and do a lot of damage. Be sure to keep ahead of them in your canola crops

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Reading Time: 3 minutes Flea beetles are easily the most chronically damaging insect pest in western Canadian canola. Damage results in yield losses estimated at $300 million each year. To limit damage, experts recommend acting early when an average level of defoliation level of 25 per cent or more is reached. Early action necessary According to Greg Sekulic, an […] Read more
General Mills is offering free flower seed to conservation-minded farmers who are interested in promoting habitat for predators and pollinators such as the native leafcutter bee.
Crops

Give your insect friends a home

Leaving some non-crop areas with a diverse range of perennial vegetation can save you money on insecticide

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Reading Time: 4 minutes What do shelterbelts, pivot corners and field margins have in common? No, they’re not unprofitable or “wasted” areas. As natural habitats for beneficial insects, including pollinators and predators of crop pests, those non-cropped areas may be worth their square footage in gold. Alejandro Costamagna, an assistant professor in the University of Manitoba’s department of entomology, […] Read more
Populations of swede midge are high enough that certain areas would see the loss of a canola crop if it were planted.
Canola, Crops

The swede midge threat

Swede midge continues to confound Near North canola growers, and it could migrate farther south

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Reading Time: 5 minutes By 2015, Terry Phillips, then chair of the Ontario Canola Growers Association, was advising growers in Ontario’s Near North to stop planting canola on farms that had been hit by the recent arrival of the swede midge. By then, yields were already getting cut by as much as 50 per cent by the pest, with […] Read more
Flowering plants such as alfalfa provide a home for beneficial insects such as parasitic wasps that can control diamondback moth, wheat midge, aphids and Hessian flies.
Crops

Be kind to your insect friends

Of the thousands of insect species around your fields, only a few damage crops. Here’s a guide to identifying and protecting the good bugs that eat the bad ones

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Reading Time: 2 minutes It can be worrying to see insects crawling over your nicely developing crop, but are they doing any damage? And even if they are, before ordering the insecticide, will spraying kill the good bugs that are already at work controlling the bad ones, not to mention other insects that are important for pollination? While killing […] Read more

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