If the scientific name doesn’t sound familiar, the common name certainly will. It’s the family of beetles that includes ladybugs and Asian lady beetles.

“Everybody recognizes the adults and everyone knows they’re beneficial,” Jordan Bannerman, an entomologist at the University of Manitoba said.

“But every year [Manitoba Agriculture entomologist] John Gavloski and I get emails from folks with pictures of these little alligator-like looking guys and they get worried about them. What are these? They’re all over my crops. How do I control them?”

The answer to that last question is, don’t. The ferocious little predators are friends.

There are a fair number of lady beetle species, all of which have similar larvae. They’re long and narrow and textured in a way that suggests the bumps along an alligator’s back. The colours are also distinctive.

“They’re going to be a medium grey to black and they’re always going to have a secondary colouration,” Bannerman said. “The most common secondary colours are either white or orange – some that are a little bit more yellow, but they’re always going to be some kind of a dark colour with some kind of a bright highlight. That is very consistent with both our native and non-native species.”

The agricultural relationship with the beetles goes back a long way. European peasant farmers in the Middle Ages knew about the little red beetle that moved through their crops, eating aphids, scale insects, thrips, mites and mealybugs, as well as the eggs laid by other bugs. They were so welcomed that they were eventually called ‘Our Lady’ beetles, a reference to the Virgin Mary, to whom Christian farmers prayed for protection. Over time, that turned into the now common misnomer, ladybug.

Classification

Despite the name, the beetles stem from a different family than true bugs.

Their family name comes from the Latin word coccineus, meaning scarlet, and they’re members of the order Coleoptera, denoted by their two hind wings covered with a hard-shelled forewing, both sets folding over the back and meeting neatly in the middle.

True bugs, in contrast, belong to the order Hemiptera, which boast a different type of wing set and tough, leathery forewings that develop into a membranous tip laid on top of an additional set of membranous hind wings.

True bugs have stylet-like mouthparts for piercing and sucking, while the lady beetle has a full set of jaws for biting and chewing, typical of beetles.

Crop benefit

There are several estimates of how many aphids a lady beetle will eat. According to one study looking at cereal fields, an adult of the native 13-spotted lady beetle may eat 110 to 160 aphids per day, depending on the surrounding temperature and type of aphid species available.

Ontario studies looking at the seven-spotted lady beetle (an introduced species) in soybeans found that consumption ranged from 80 aphids a day for males and 115 for females.

At the larval stage, they’re “eating machines,” Bannerman said. “They start eating in the morning and they eat the rest of the day until they’re done, and they do it the next day, feeding on the same things.”

Those same Ontario studies put third-instar larvae consumption at 105 aphids a day.

The adults, meanwhile, have other things to do. They hibernate over the winter, mate in the spring and then get about laying their oval-shaped eggs, anywhere between 30 to 1,000 over the season.

Those eggs are situated as close to a stand of aphids as possible, so the less mobile but voracious offspring have instant access to food.

The larvae, in fact, are chewing the moment they get into the world. They eat the shell of the egg from which they just hatched. They may eat any infertile eggs in the clutch. That provides their first fuel before getting to work on nearby aphids.

Then, the eating and growing really gets underway. The larvae go through four instar stages, each time emerging from their moult a bit bigger, but still bearing that alligator-esque shape. After reaching their full growth, the eating pauses for a day or so before they harden into orange-bodied, spotted pupae. Adults emerge a week or two later.

Alberta has 13 species of lady beetles, including both native and introduced species.

– This article was originally published at the Manitoba Co-operator.

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The most recent map is the bertha army worm survey results. That and other maps are available at alberta.ca/alberta-insect-pest-monitoring-network.aspx.

Weather patterns in May and so far in June have been perfect for development of some insect pests but suboptimal for others.

The post Stay up-to-date on insect pests appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

While recent rains in parts of Alberta were helpful, crops will need more moisture this season and there’s no guarantee it will come. But while watching the skies, farmers can also focus on things they can control, says an Alberta agronomist.

“Most producers have put their fertilizer in. They’ve seeded. They’ve probably spent money on herbicides. It’s very hard for them to really make any decisions at this point,” said Jeremy Boychyn with the Alberta Wheat and Barley commissions.

“What they can do right now is continue to assess their crops and check for any issues coming in to make sure there’s no additional stresses on their crop. That way, if we do get rain, there’s some recovery.”

Grasshoppers tend to favour hot, dry conditions so they are pests to watch for, particularly in southern Alberta, which is prone to infestations.

“I’ve been hearing from a number of folks in the southern part of the province that the grasshopper pressure is high. We know that due to May’s warmer conditions that the hatch is moving faster than usual,” said Boychyn.

“We know that grasshoppers are larger than we typically see for this time of year and there’s more of them because we’ve had open falls that allowed them to lay more eggs for longer.

“So the populations are higher, the size and the advancement of those grasshoppers is further along than normal and their distribution — because of the open falls — is larger. So protecting those crops is certainly going to be top of mind for producers in those high pressure areas.”

If the crop is already appears unlikely to produce much, a decision to spray can be discussed with an agronomist and possibly a crop insurance agent, said Boychyn.

“The answer to that question is going to vary greatly depending on the pressure of the insect that’s coming in, the potential value of that crop and whether that crop has been written off by their insurance company or not,” he said.

“If they have grasshoppers coming and they’re staring a three-bushel wheat crop in the face, and it costs them $20 per acre to spray that crop, then it’s very hard to make that economic decision to spend more money on that crop.”

The crop insurance company might also give guidance on the best course of action.

“We are certainly in a dire situation in many parts of the province and there are producers staring down a crop that is likely not going to be producing anything,” said Boychyn.

“But having that discussion with their insurance is going to help make sure they’re making the best decision for the economics of that field and the potential of that crop to make sure they’re not missing out on any opportunities.”

The bottom line is to have a plan whether or not rain comes. If not, the question may be whether the crop is worth harvesting.

“Maybe there’s other market opportunities to move that crop or to work with neighbours with cattle that could feed on that crop.”

A plan is also needed if enough rain falls to salvage a crop.

“If we do get into a situation of moisture, are you going to have to make decisions on harvesting a more variable crop? What’s that going to mean in terms of storage?

“So the best thing they can do right now is start to entertain options in either direction so there’s a plan to work with one way or the other,” said Boychyn.

Little rainfall in much of the province through May and the first half of June is a nightmare for Alberta producers. Many have had insufficient soil moisture since the drought of 2021.

According to the June 6 edition of Alberta’s Agricultural Moisture Situation Update, a hot May further depleted soil moisture reserves following a dry fall and spring.

Regions particularly affected include the western half of the southern region, parts of the central region and portions of the Peace region, all of which experienced 25- to 50-year precipitation lows for May.

“As a result, many crops are currently reliant on timely rainfall for their daily moisture needs,” said the report.

In a June 13 interview, Boychyn encouraged farmers not to count out timely rains quite yet.

“It’s still relatively early in the season … There is recovery that can happen.”

The post To best weather drought, focus on what you can control appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

Among the pests he cited were grasshoppers, flea beetles and pea leaf weevils. 

Tansey said the grasshopper hatch is well underway in Saskatchewan, but recent rains could change how much of a problem they become. 

“We’ve had some rain in the south of the province and we are still waiting to see what… that has done with these grasshopper nests. The moisture can contribute to disease in these animals and contribute to direct mortality,” he said, noting there have been some reports already of crop damage, 

Tansey stressed the need for vigilance with farmers checking their crops and the surrounding areas for signs of grasshoppers and other pests. He said there has been estimates of 50 to 70 grasshopper nymphs per square meter in ditches, which normal rates tend to be around 40. 

There have also been reports of striped and crucifer flea beetles in the province, especially in the central area. 

“We are hearing about damage to seedling canola in the Saskatoon area,” Tansey said, also noting large numbers of striped flea beetles in the province’s northeast. That said, he cautioned there are still few reports to go on at this time and there was still something of a chance the problem might not be as bad as expected. 

“There’s no replacement for getting out and seeing what’s happening,” he said. 

Pea leaf weevils have been reported as well, though it’s still on the early side to fully know how much of a problem they could become this year. 

“There was a pretty dramatic increase in the number of pea leaf weevil numbers in the northeast last year,” he said, noting monitoring just recently started for this year. 

Some farmers recently began spraying for different insect pests in the province, he said, but added that when reports and numbers have firmed up, the province will make the insect situation well known to them. 

— Glen Hallick reports for MarketsFarm from Winnipeg.

The post Insects posing problems in Saskatchewan crops appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

Producers are urged to sign up for the Prairie Pest Monitoring Network’s free weekly e-newsletter at prairiepest.ca.

A large number of collaborators and volunteers collect thousands of samples across the Prairies during the growing season to bring farmers “timely crop insect forecasts, risk maps and protocols throughout the growing season to help make the best in-crop pest management decisions.”

The network has posted maps on its website from its 2022 surveys for grasshoppers, bertha armyworm, wheat midge, wheat stem sawfly, pea leaf weevil, cabbage seedpod weevil and diamondback moths.

The post Find out what will be bugging you in 2023 appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

The counts are based on extensive sampling by agricultural fieldmen and applied research groups across the province last year, and the reports from Alberta Agriculture highlight survey findings by region. They also provide info on identification, life cycle, damage and pest management.

The reports can be found at the Government of Alberta website.

Here are some highlights of recent postings.

Grasshoppers

Grasshopper numbers have been increasing in the south and along the Saskatchewan border since 2021, and the affected area is expanding. “There is potential for outbreaks in the southern region and along the eastern border region in 2023,” the report states. “Grasshoppers tend to lay their eggs near areas of green growth in the fall that will provide potential food sources for emerging young the following spring.

“Areas with early green plant growth such as field margins, fence lines and roadsides are also areas that will give early indications of potential grasshopper problems.”

Wheat midge

Nearly 300 samples were taken across the province and the only hot spot for wheat midge was east and southeast of Edmonton. But the report notes “individual fields can be — and often are — highly variable.”“Producers should plan to monitor their fields when the midge adults are flying and their wheat is in the susceptible stage, from the boot leaf until anthers are visible on the heads,” it states.

Wheat stem sawfly

The survey was conducted in southern and south-central Alberta and while fewer fields had a high percentage of cutting, there were more fields with a moderate rating.“Cutting was found in all the municipalities traditionally known for wheat stem sawfly,” the report states. “In addition, damage of 10 to 25 per cent cutting was found in the M.D. of Pincher Creek as well as on the south side of Kneehill County.”

In all, cut stem counts were conducted in 81 fields in 20 municipalities and “overall, sawfly is a real risk in 2023.”

The post Pest survey results and maps now available appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

“The Pest Management Challenge is an opportunity to get people talking and to encourage the adoption of resistance management best practices,” said Jennifer Hubert, an official with CropLife Canada, one of the organizations behind the Manage Resistance Now initiative.

It’s website, www. manageresistancenow.ca, offers info on best practices and recommendations for preventing or slowing herbicide, insecticide and fungicide resistance, as well as case studies.

To enter the Pest Management Challenge, which closes March 31, go to pestmanagementchallenge.ca.

The post How do you manage resistant pests? appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

“In general, we’re at or above average for the five-year (yield) average and some of the 10-year averages,” said Jeremy Boychyn, agronomy research extension manager with Alberta Wheat and Alberta Barley. “All of Alberta was about 110 per cent of the five-year yield index.”

[RELATED] Scout your fields to keep on top of this year’s pest insects

Of course, averages are just that and areas that didn’t receive the timely June rains suffered.

“Those regions that received less rain in early June or July will be impacted because we had a lack of subsoil moisture,” noted Boychyn.

Earlier rains would have helped a lot in the south, where spring wheat, for example, averaged just 31.2 bushels per acre. Still, that’s far better than the 17.8 bushels-per-acre average in 2021. The jump was even more dramatic in central Alberta, where average yields were 63 bushels, more than double the average from a year earlier.

Quality was generally good; above average for hard red spring wheat, canola and dry peas and about average for malt and feed barley.

And there weren’t a lot of complaints come harvest time.

“There were not a lot of moisture holdups,” said Boychyn. “There were some fire concerns because of how dry it was. Some producers had to slow down due to excess heat and fire risk.”

Soil moisture is once again a concern.

“We need a good snowpack and conditions to get it melted. In addition to that, we need a good amount of spring rainfall, prior to and after seeding,” he said.

“We went into this spring very dry. We were lucky enough to get June rains. If we don’t get moisture in the spring, and we don’t get those June rains, it could cause us to have another 2021 season.”

[RELATED] Christmas came in June this year on most farms

A quiet year for disease

“We didn’t have any province-wide emergencies or epidemics,” said Mike Harding, plant pathologist with Alberta Agriculture and Irrigation.

“We didn’t really see any new or emerging pathogens that we have never seen before. There were cases where disease was extremely damaging and yield limiting, but on a very case-by-case basis.”

However, bacterial leaf streak and wheat streak mosaic virus made appearances in 2022, and Harding would like growers to watch for them.

“We’ve been talking about bacterial leaf streak for the past four to five years, but it continues to spread and continues to cause some real headaches for growers that have had it kind of run away from them in the field,” he said.

Bacterial leaf streak, which is caused by a bacterium, can be seed borne and can get splashed about with rain, and can move relatively long distances in a thunderstorm. The bacteria flourishes in warm, wet conditions, and populations can double in a day.

“The number of bacteria in a field where conditions are conducive can ramp up quickly,” said Harding. “The second problem is that we don’t have any good pre-season or in-season control tools to manage it.”

Lack of seed treatments, foliar sprays or genetically resistant varieties wasn’t a huge problem when the disease first showed up in Alberta in the 1930s or 1940s.

“In the past, bacterial leaf streak would show up in a field or two and be more of a curiosity than a problem. And then we wouldn’t see it again for a decade,” Harding said. That changed around 2017.

“We started seeing it in an increasing number of fields,” he said. “We started hearing about it in about 10 to 15 fields and now we’re probably up into the hundreds of fields. We’re seeing the worst of it in irrigated southern Alberta because that’s where the warm, wet conditions exist that cause the bacteria to multiply.”

Growers can find bacterial leaf spot at the flag leaf stage, or just ahead of flag leaf emergence. It will appear as elongated stripes that will turn yellow, and if there is humidity, there might be “bacterial ooze,” he said.

“There’s probably going to be growers who have never seen this or heard of this, who may have it show up,” said Harding. “You need to know what to look for and you need to watch for it, because in some cases, it’s going to look a lot like a leaf spot disease that we can treat with a fungicide.

“But a fungicide isn’t going to control it.”

Harding encourages growers to google the disease and study images.

He also warned about wheat streak mosaic, which shows up mainly in southern Alberta cereals. There is no control for this disease either.

“It’s important to watch for these ones that flare up once in a while, or emerge as the new kid on the block,” he said.

Beetles and hoppers

“If you follow anyone on Twitter, you’ll know that they battled them this spring really hard,” said Shelley Barkley, insect survey technologist with Alberta Agriculture and Irrigation.

Cruciferous and striped flea beetles were equally bad this year due to a combination of weather, stand establishment issues and a population that successfully overwintered.

[RELATED] Flea beetles: more species, more territory

Barkley said the beetles, which feed on canola, were bad across the province.

Grasshoppers were another problem.

“It’s not a surprise, because we had that beautiful fall last year,” she said. “The females were able to lay a lot of eggs and we had a lot of potential in the ground.”

Areas south of Calgary were among those with peak grasshopper activity. Diamondback moth larvae were at near threshold or at threshold from Vulcan to Olds.

“There was a fair bit of chemical put on for those guys,” said Barkley.

Insects that do better in drier conditions seem to be thriving. Wheat stem sawfly flourished in Vulcan County and on the south side of Kneehill County.

Barkley said grasshoppers may be a problem again next year in southern Alberta because of the mild fall. Flea beetles may not be a problem if the weather is good and canola emerges ahead of them.

“Producers just need to be prepared and be out scouting for flea beetles and for grasshoppers when they are out and about and starting to hatch in June,” she said.

Growers might also want to sign up for the Prairie Pest Monitoring email that alerts growers to problems. Population maps for all tracked insects will be posted on the Alberta Agriculture and Irrigation website, under the Alberta Pest Monitoring Network.

The post All in all, it wasn’t a bad crop year – and that’s welcome news appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

The Prairie Biovigilance Network comprises a group of experts in plant pathology, entomology, weed science, economics and agronomy led by AgCanada research scientist Brent McCallum.

Researchers examine the pests that are causing the problem as well as the cropping systems, previous problems in a field, soil health, environmental drivers, local geography and climate, he said.

“From there, we look at what’s going on with this pest population; where is it moving and how is it changing and evolving,” McCallum said.

Biovigilance also involves cultural factors such as food trends when looking at things that might affect pathogens. For instance, kale has become increasingly popular in recent years. As more kale fields were planted, researchers would expect the arrival of pathogens specific to kale.

A heightened level of awareness is important before researchers look toward mitigation strategies and tools available to combat a pest. But even then, the process isn’t over.

“We want to make sure that we’re continually monitoring and applying those mitigation strategies to control the pests,” McCallum said. “We know these pest populations are dynamic, and they can change or they can evolve to overcome some of the control measures we use against them.

“We’ve been working on these problems for over 100 years so we’ve definitely learned some things.”

One of those lessons is that you can’t let your guard down. McCallum has spent a lot of time researching stem rust in wheat.

“We thought it was the biggest problem we ever had in the crop,” he said. “There were years where you could hardly grow a wheat crop because of the stem rust.”

Then wheat cultivars with resistance to stem rust were introduced.

“We’ve controlled it well that way, but even that pathogen changes over time and could change to overcome the resistance that we have now. So we have to keep looking and seeing what’s going on with the stem rust population, and also keep discovering new stem rust resistance genes that we could deploy into future cultivars if that disease changes and becomes a problem in the future.”

[RELATED] Grainews: A look at wheat and canola field crop diseases

At present, the network is composed of AgCanada researchers but the intent is to collaborate with colleagues from provincial governments and stakeholder organizations, as well as producers.

Collaborative work across disciplines is a key element, said McCallum.

“That’s something we didn’t do very much of before,” he said. “The weed scientist might be on wheat, but they wouldn’t necessarily talk to the wheat pathologist or the people studying entomology on wheat.

“And that’s really paying off, because we’re learning from each other in terms of not only how to conduct the research but also how to interpret the findings, and getting a better picture of what’s going on with our crops by combining our efforts under the biovigilance umbrella.”

In a video, plant pathologist Odile Carisse cites an example that shows the value of collaboration.

“Using a biovigilance approach, we discovered that certain herbicides facilitate soil fungi that attack plants,” Carisse said. “We would not have thought about this in the past. If researchers in herbology are working without speaking to researchers in plant pathology, we solve one problem while creating another. If we look at the whole picture, we are better able to predict a new problem that might emerge.”

The Biovigilance Network is not necessarily about replacing chemical mitigation methods with more environmentally friendly options, said McCallum.

“We know chemical control is an important tool that we have. But there are also other tools, such as genetic resistance and cultural controls like crop rotations and tillage. We want to use them all in the most effective manner and keep monitoring our pest populations to see that our tools are still working.”

The ultimate goal of the network is to mitigate potential threats from plant diseases, weed species and insects before they impact the agricultural sector on a larger scale. The next step in achieving that goal is to expand the network so more producers can benefit.

“We want to raise awareness and get producers to participate with us,” McCallum said.

“We don’t just do this work in isolation; it’s something we need to do with the producers. They’re the ones who are on the front lines and generally the first to notice pests cropping up in their fields. Their contributions to the network are crucial.”

– This article was originally published at the Manitoba Co-operator.

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Adult pea leaf weevils are tiny and were first found in Canada near Lethbridge in 2000. By 2019, they had crossed the Manitoba border and have since been found in much of that province, although it takes a sharp eye to find them.

Like so many pest species, they aren’t from North America. They’re an old-world species that can be found in northern Europe and ranges all the way to the northern tip of Africa. They’re a member of genus Sitona and related to a number of weevils with similar dietary habits. They like pulses and legumes.

“They all have a very peculiar life cycle,” said Hector Carcamo, an entomologist at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Lethbridge research centre. “The larvae are associated with the roots of the crop. Sometimes they feed directly on the roots, but most commonly they’ll attack the bacteria that form the nodules that fix nitrogen.”

While the tiny adults feed on green leaves, leaving a characteristic notching pattern, it’s the larvae that do the real damage. By eating the root nodule bacteria, they reduce the amount of fixed nitrogen available to the plant, leaving it unable to make protein and set seeds.

“If the field already has nitrogen, no problem,” said Manitoba Agriculture entomologist John Gavloski. “But people who are seeding peas and faba beans won’t be putting on as much nitrogen because the plants can fix their own.”

“In faba beans we have documented yield reductions that are quite substantial,” Carcamo said. “Sometimes half a tonne per hectare is possible, so that’s quite a lot of money.”

Scouting is a challenge. Tell-tale leaf damage may be evident but the weevils themselves are so small that they are not easily seen.

That is why it helps to know their habits. For a start, they overwinter as adults in field vegetation.

“They’re emerging in the spring from our perennial forages as well as our ditches and shelterbelts,” said Laura Schmidt, western production specialist with Manitoba Pulse and Soybean Growers. “In the early spring they’ll fly to peas and faba beans, their host crops.”

The weevils are specific to faba beans and field peas. Although the adults will feed on other plants during the fall, the larvae are tied to these two crops. Carcamo said a grad student tried forcing the weevils to breed on other legumes to see if the larvae would attack them too.

“We tried them on alfalfa and we got nothing out of alfalfa. We tried a vetch also, I can’t recall which one, but we couldn’t get anything out of the vetch,” he said.

“We tried soybean and we got only one larva out of that, so soybean might be an occasional host but not really an important one. They’re very specific.”

Once the weevils start feeding, they leave a distinctive, almost scallop-like notch pattern on the leaves. This feeding pattern indicates they’re around and may be a problem, though control options are limited.

“There are foliar insecticides that are registered for pea leaf weevil control,” Schmidt said. “They’re ultimately ineffective, partially because those eggs have already been laid, so the damage is already done. It’s a revenge spray.”

Besides, there may be several waves of emerging adults and spraying may only kill one wave. There will soon be others.

“There are insecticide seed treatments that will provide some control, and I say ‘some’ because it’s not complete control,” Schmidt said. “The thiamethoxam seed treatment is only killing a third of the weevils in the field.”

Since spraying is not the answer and seed treatments are only partially effective, managing the pea leaf weevil can be a chess match based on observations by farmers or agronomists.

It starts with the history of the field and previous problems with pea leaf weevils. They like to overwinter in perennial forages. If there was a problem last year and there’s an alfalfa field nearby, growers may want to consider a seed treatment for field peas and faba beans.

The weather is another consideration. Weevils like it moist.

“In Saskatchewan, with some of their surveys, they saw their numbers go down quite a bit in some of the drier years that we had over the last few years,” Gavloski said. “Manitoba is predicted to be an area where they should do quite well because we do have the climate conditions that would favour them. We’ll just have to wait and see how the population establishes here.”

When it comes to weevils, there’s an endless variety

If you open an entomology textbook, find the index and look up ‘weevil,’ you’ll find a stack of them, most named for a plant grown in agriculture or forestry.

There’s cabbage seed pod, carrot, clover seed, coffee bean, cranberry… it covers most of the alphabet from alfalfa to white pine.

It’s obvious that people have a storied history with weevils. In the early 1900s. the cotton boll weevil decimated the cotton crop in the southern U.S., inspiring a number of blues singers right up to the Boll Weevil Song made famous by Brook Benton in 1961.

The University of Arkansas-Monticello even uses the infamous boll weevil as the team name and their mascot, Weezie the Weevil, leads the cheers as they take the field in Boll Weevil Stadium.

For as long as humanity has been farming, it has been plagued by weevils in one form or another.

Weevils are beetles and beetles make up close to 40 per cent of all insect species. We don’t know how many different types there are but it could be as many as two million.

The number of different types of weevils is unknown because people are still arguing about what a weevil is.

There’s agreement that true weevils belong to the family Curculionidae and there are about 83,000 different known species. When talking insects, you’re talking huge numbers.

The true weevils are also called ‘snout beetles’ because of their distinctive long snout. Their antennae also have odd, almost elbow-like joints. Beyond that, there are huge variations in size and shape.

Most are plant eaters and some can be serious pests in agriculture and forestry. They can also be used for biological control of pest plants such as purple loosestrife, which is now kept in check with the loosestrife flower weevil and the loosestrife root weevil.

The post Tiny pea leaf weevil spreads across vast prairie landscape appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.