Macrosteles quadrilineatus injects a phytoplasma into the plant that affects its hormones; where you get green things where you should have yellow things in canola and you get leaves instead of seeds.

The leafhoppers spread aster yellows that affect over 300 plants including crops like canola, wheat and carrots as a generalist pest. Testing for leafhopper aster yellows infection using laboratory and field-adaptable DNA extraction has improved by leaps and bounds. Confirmation comes within a half-an-hour compared to a week previously.

WHY IT MATTERS: The speed at which Western Canadian pests can be identified and the conditions and best practices used in combating them are crucial in saving yields in various crops including canola.

“Where do the leafhoppers come from, and when they come in, how infected are they? This is the key to the outbreaks,” said Dr. Tyler Wist, a research scientist in field crop entomology during his Pest-Side Story presentation at the 2026 Irrigated Crop Production Update in Lethbridge, Alta.

“There are a few different hypotheses going around. One, they come all the way up from Texas. Two, they come up and they hang around in Nebraska, Kansas, and then they come up. Some years they don’t even get all the way to Canada on this northward (wind) migration.”

Aster yellows affect on canola yields seem to be linked to water/moisture levels according to some of Wist’s and his colleagues research. Wist showed graphs of big outbreaks in May 2012 and May 2023, with a wide variance of moisture levels at the time. The much drier season in 2023 resulted in less damage overall, backed by an 2015 Elliott/Olivier study of leafhopper feeding density with corresponding canola seed yield in dry and wet conditions.

“It was really hot and dry in 2023. The canola wasn’t as trashed as I expected. I was catching leafhoppers that were infected over 61 per cent of the population, which is completely unheard of for aster yellows hoppers coming up here,” said Wist.

A working hypothesis is with canola seed treated with insecticide, it kills the leaf hopper alongside the flea beetle. Under dry soil conditions, most of the leafhoppers died with 24 hours and did not affect the plants.

Under the wet soil conditions, only about half of the leafhoppers died with the rest remaining to hang around and feed on the plant.

Most conditions cut down on the impact of the insecticides by taking a lot out of the root zone, where the plant does not pick it up, allowing the leafhopper to survive longer as a vector and increasing the chance of aster yellows infestation.

“Aster yellows went down under these dry soil conditions in 2023. Things that didn’t have a seed treatment, like carrots, peas, sunflowers and the whole cut flower industry in northern Alberta were just absolutely hammered by aster yellows,” said Wist.

The post Aster leafhoppers: An unwanted guest migrating from U.S. for canola appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

What if, instead of blanket spraying an entire field to wipe out invading insects, you gave them something to munch on that you want them to eat?

Trap cropping — where plants favoured by a pest insect are planted to draw insects away from a main cash crop (usually planted later) — is making new inroads with farmers, particularly those with small to mid-sized fields and who want to lower insecticide use, according to Héctor Cárcamo, a senior research scientist at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

WHY IT MATTERS: Spray costs, resistance concerns and increasing awareness of beneficial insects have driven more research attention to integrated pest management practices. In some cases, that’s meant taking a leaf out of our grandparents’ book.

Speaking to pulse growers near Taber, Alta., in December, Cárcamo pointed to various Prairie research projects testing the concept in pest hot spots.

Trap cropping relies on the idea that, by concentrating pests in designated areas for food and egg laying, farmers can monitor and manage the pest population more efficiently. Maybe they can limit their spraying to that limited area, or release beneficial insects.

Spraying a smaller area might mean less input cost, while also keeping things friendlier for beneficial insects and making control efforts more targeted and precise.

Matchmaking pests and trap crops

The secret is finding which trap crop will draw the most pests away from the crop the farmer is trying to protect, Cárcamo said.

For faba bean growers, lygus bugs are one pest insect they’d like to keep well clear of their fields. They also might be enough of a picky eater for trap crops to work.

Cárcamo’s work into trap crops against lygus bugs was highlighted by the Western Producer last year. At that time, the researcher noted that the pulse crop’s timing — filling pods while surrounding crops are drying down — tends to puts a target on the still juicy faba bean plants for any lygus bugs in the area.

Researchers tried various trap crops as bait, along with targeted insecticide and beneficial predator release. They tried mustard, canola, hemp and sunflowers.

Winter peas got a good jump in development, while spring-planted peas faced struggled to achieve the needed difference in crop staging compared to the protected crop. Of the seven crops tested, one was the clear lygus bug favourite.

“I’ll give you a hint. It’s yellow flowers and produces oil. Canola was the clear favourite,” Cárcamo said.

Sunflowers also showed potential, echoing results also seen in China with a different species of lygus bug.

Last year’s coverage of Cárcamo’s lygus bug work also noted that faba beans planted next to safflower showed less damage than those planted next to canola in 2022, and that safflower seemed to retain the pest insects for longer.

How realistic is it?

There is promise in trap cropping fields, those listening to Cárcamo’s presentation heard. At the same time, results will vary depending on the pest and specific strategies used. There’s timing, field arrangement, pest pressure and follow-up management like local spraying and beneficials introduction that are critical.

In the faba bean trial, for instance, while canola had lygus bugs flocking to the trap, it also had to be followed up with well-timed insecticide to keep the bugs from exploding back into the protected crop.

There’s also the question of how well it meshes with the average farms. Most farms on the Prairies today are large, with large fields. More complex and time consuming agronomic pest management alternatives may not be attractive.

“Trap cropping, you need to do things at different times and some farms have thousands and thousands of acres. If someone has the time, maybe they are retiring and want to play around, then try trap crops,” said Cárcamo.

The post Trap crops to cut faba bean spraying? appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

That simple idea sparked a four-year research project at the University of Manitoba, where Yvonne Lawley, associate professor of plant science, and Alejandro Costamagna, professor of entomology, have been testing whether standing cover from fall rye or spring-seeded nurse crops can reduce early feeding.

The work was demonstrated publicly at a University of Manitoba field day in Carman this past July.

WHY IT MATTERS: Flea beetles remain one of the Prairie’s most frustrating canola pests, and early feeding damage can push growers toward costly in-season sprays.

The concept started with a social media thread.

Several farmers had accidentally left fall rye standing too long in spring, then noticed their canola seedlings seemed to suffer less defoliation. Rather than brush off the anecdote, after a gentle nudge from her grad students, Lawley dipped her toe into the discussion, then quickly became immersed.

“Agronomists and farmers were sharing their collective observations in the social media space about this effect,” she said.

Those discussions led to a formal study with support from Manitoba Canola Growers and funding from CARP (Canola Agronomic Research Program). The goal was to test whether a living cover could shield canola long enough for seedlings to outgrow their most vulnerable stages.

Small-plot findings

Graduate student Aleksander Zashev walked tour attendees through four seasons of small-plot trials comparing fall rye termination timings. Late termination — holding off until canola reached the two-leaf stage — consistently led to less defoliation and fewer flea beetles. However, those same treatments also posed the highest risk of yield loss. In two of the four years, tall rye shaded the canola enough to drag yields down.

A clear pattern was emerging: more biomass meant more protection, but the added competition risked greater yield losses.

Spring-seeded oats were also evaluated as a nurse crop because they pose far less agronomic risk than fall rye. Oats emerge later and grow shorter, so they are far less likely to shade canola seedlings. The oat treatments produced little change in defoliation or flea beetle numbers, except in one case at a higher seeding rate. The results were predictable, but still useful: they reinforced the pattern seen with rye — biomass is the main driver of the hiding effect.

Lawley said the challenge is finding the sweet spot between maximum hiding and minimal shading. Waiting until canola reaches the two-leaf stage offers the strongest hiding effect, but that same biomass can shade seedlings and slow early growth.

Data showed the most balanced option was terminating when canola was still at the cotyledon stage. Because glyphosate doesn’t kill the rye immediately, the standing plants provide a short window of protection before they die off.

“We have a seven-day window before that fall rye is terminated,” said Lawley.

Taking it to the field

Graduate student Raquel Chinchin Talavera presented the on-farm phase of the study. That phase was launched in 2024 with four co-operating growers in the south-central region of the Red River Valley. Full-field strips, 36-metres wide, were seeded with and without a cover crop to see whether the small-plot trends hold under real farm conditions.

Early observations show slightly more flea beetles in bare canola strips than in strips with a living nurse crop, though the wider spacing between monitoring traps means overall counts are lower than in the small plots. Yield data from the second season is still pending.

While the research has validated that standing cover can interrupt flea beetle activity, Lawley wants growers to be cautious in how they interpret the early results. There are still many unknowns. Row orientation, stand density and fertility management could all influence outcomes. And, significantly, the agronomic costs (yield hits from competition, shading, moisture use and possible nitrogen tie-up) are real.

So, would Lawley recommend this for large acres at this point?

“No, we’re still working on it,” she said. “I feel like it’s still a high-risk practice for canola at this point.”

Where it could lead

Despite the uncertainty, she sees potential. Growers already experimenting with fall rye or spring nurse crops for soil health or weed management may one day be able to layer flea beetle suppression into those systems. But before any of this becomes a recommendation, researchers need to fine-tune the agronomy enough to reduce the risk of yield penalties.

The project concludes its CARP-funded phase after the 2025 season, but Lawley has already seeded more fall rye to continue teasing apart the variables. She hopes future work can answer questions about seeding rate, termination timing, nitrogen management and how to optimize cover without compromising stand establishment. The biggest unknown remains how the flea beetle feeding process is disrupted.

“We still don’t understand the mechanism of how flea beetles are seeing, smelling, sensing the canola, and how having living cover interrupts it,” she said.

“It would be worthwhile trying to understand that mechanism so we can optimize this practice.”

For now, the idea remains a promising possibility rather than a new tool — a reminder that Prairie innovation often starts with a farmer noticing something odd, and a curious researcher willing to follow the thread.

“We’ve validated the observation that cover crops can hide canola from flea beetles. Now we need to de-risk it.”

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The pests were first found in Lethbridge, but can now be found throughout the province.

“Historically, it was more of an economic issue in southern Alberta, but we do see higher populations in central Alberta and the Edmonton area. We’re still trying to tease apart the relationship between yield losses in central and northern Alberta,” said Jorgensen.

WHY IT MATTERS: With the right conditions, the pea leaf weevil can cause significant yield losses in pulse crops, especially field peas and faba beans.

Hector Carcamo, entomologist at Agriculture and Agri-food Canada in Lethbridge, said the pea leaf weevil made its way to the west coast in Canada in the 1930s, was discovered on the Canadian Prairies in the 1990s and has been moving east ever since.

This is the first year the pea leaf weevil has been a problem in Manitoba.

“We’ve seen a lot of damage in central Manitoba,” said Carcamo, at an Alberta Pulse Growers regional meeting in Taber.

Reproduction

The insects can feed on field peas, faba beans, lentils and beans, but can only reproduce on peas and faba beans.

The pea leaf weevil produces one generation per year.

Females lay about 1,000 to 1,500 eggs in the soil. The pea leaf weevil tends to have more of an impact on faba beans. However, there are fewer faba beans in the province, so the Alberta Agriculture and Irrigation, Plant and Bee Health Surveillance section staff concentrates their surveys on peas.

“Adults will feed on leaves, which is a nice way for us to scout for their presence, looking for those distinct notches. But that notching usually isn’t economic unless you have so many weevils that there’s not much plant left, which does not happen very often,” said Jorgensen.

The pea leaf weevils find areas with thick residue and perennial forage crops like alfalfa to spend the winter.

The weevils can overwinter as adult beetles and start feeding on non-reproductive plant hosts.

“That’s just an adult feeding. It’s not necessarily an economic concern,” said Jorgensen.

Weevils arrive early in pea fields in warm temperatures above 20 C. If the weather stays around that temperature for more than a few days in late April or early May, that may correspond with higher pea yield losses. If the weather is cool during the same period, pea yield is generally not as compromised.

New adults may emerge later in the growing season in late July through August, and search for any pulse crop to continue feeding before overwintering.

In March or April, they emerge from hibernation and start looking for any plant in the bean family to feed on before laying eggs from May through July.

“They really want to find the field peas and faba beans. There is something that gets them in a romantic mood when they find field peas and faba beans. They start thinking about mating and laying eggs,” said Carcamo.

“Even if they find alfalfa, they will not lay as many eggs in a field of alfalfa.”

Identification

The adult pea leaf weevil is slender, greyish brown and about five-millimetres long. They can be identified by the presence of three light-coloured stripes extending lengthwise down the thorax and the abdomen.

The larvae are C-shaped, light milky white in colour, with a dark brown head. They have no legs and are cylindrical, soft and fleshy. They are about 3.5 to 5.5 mm in length.

Economic loss

Weevils will move from alfalfa or another legume to a faba bean or pea field. They feed on faba beans and pea fields and start mating and laying eggs in the soil. The pupae emerge as adults towards the end of August and then start feeding on nodules, which causes the economic losses.

When larvae feed on root nodules, there is decreased nodulation, as well as a decrease in the amount of nitrogen that peas or faba beans are going to be able to produce.

“That’s really where our yield impact comes,” Jorgensen said.

“Sometimes the relationship between the number of weevils and the yield isn’t as clear cut, because of all the different agronomic factors that could impact the amount of nitrogen that’s already in the field. The amount of moisture the plant is getting is going to impact how that reduced ability to produce nitrogen is going to impact yield.”

Moving north

The pea leaf weevil has made its way to the Peace Country, and there is a hotspot in Saddle Hills County northwest of Grande Prairie. But there are still low levels of insects in that area.

“We did see a population increase, so we’re keeping an eye on it,” said Jorgensen.

The pea leaf weevil is most found in pea fields south of Highway 1, with density of the insect and resulting damage increasing towards Lethbridge.

“We recommend producers pay attention to what they’ve seen in their own fields in terms of yield impact, because this year, we saw high numbers of pea leaf weevil in the central and Edmonton area, but we don’t have any people reporting yield losses,” said Jorgensen.

Overwintering

The pea leaf weevil needs moisture to develop. They need a good snow cover or mild winter to survive.

“If we have a harsh, cold winter with low snow cover, then a lot of weevils are going to die over the winter, and if they don’t have the best moisture conditions over the summer, they will persist but won’t do as great,” said Jorgensen.

If moisture conditions are good, that will often help plants compensate for the damage.

Pest management

If producers see pea leaf weevil consistently in their area, seed treatments are the best solution, Jorgensen said.

“There are foliar insecticides that are registered for pea leaf weevil, but we’re finding more that they really do not decrease yield impacts from pea leaf weevil. Pea leaf weevil has a long emergence period for adults to be active.”

In areas that consistently have pea leaf weevil issues, using a registered seed treatment is one of the best things a grower can do.

Growers should keep track of yield issues and decide to see if treated seed is worthwhile for their farm.

“It’s worth noticing whether they have had any yield issues, and to make that decision whether using a treated seed is worthwhile for them specifically,” Jorgensen said.

The 2025 survey was conducted by Alberta Agriculture staff who stop at random pea fields and visit producers who have called. The survey for pea leaf weevil is conducted during the spring.

“We really appreciate the volunteers, because we have random sampling fields that we see driving by between the four and six node stage. It’s hard to track a pea field at that height, so we always appreciate people letting us know where we can find them,” they said.

The team surveys by counting the number of U-shaped notches on the leaves.

When the surveillance team has their information about what they saw in the spring last year, it’s still helpful for producers to make their own decisions about what they want to do in the field, they said.

The survey is helpful for making decisions, but it doesn’t necessarily reflect what will happen after overwintering conditions.

Unfortunately, pea leaf weevil is an insect that growers cannot spray for.

“There are foliar insecticides that are registered for pea leaf weevil, but we’re finding more and more that they do not decrease yield impacts from pea leaf weevil, because pea leaf weevil has a long emergence period for those adults to be active,” they said.

A foliar application is going to miss a good portion of adults, and they will still lay enough eggs that there could be a yield issue.

The post Growers urged to monitor for pea leaf weevil despite low 2025 activity appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

But the wheat stem sawfly, a species native to Alberta, still caused moderate to high cutting damages in areas where the pest is most commonly found from year to year.

WHY IT MATTERS: Wheat stem sawfly can cause up to 15 per cent yield loss, but there are options for Alberta growers to minimize their losses.

“Sawfly have one generation per year, and they’re an insect that is going to start flying and looking for spots to lay eggs in early to mid-July, depending on the weather,” said Amanda Jorgensen, insect management specialist with Alberta Ag.

The females move into wheat fields from grassy ditches or wheat fields from the previous year, and they will lay their eggs in the wheat stems, where larvae will feed on them.

“They’re going to eat in there throughout the summer,” said Jorgensen.

“As we get closer to the end of the fall and towards harvest, they’ll move down to the bottom of the stem, sometimes below ground, in the soil, and that’s where they will hole up for the winter and eventually pupate and come out in spring.”

“They’re an insect that is going to do well in those stubble conditions, no matter what we do. The important thing in terms of natural control for this pest is that they’re strongly influenced by their parasitoid, a wasp known as Bracon cephi.”

The parasitoid, which is also a native species, has a different life cycle than the wheat stem sawfly. It has two generations per year, and the second generation is the one that gives the best control to the wheat stem sawfly. The parasitoid overwinters in stubble at higher populations than the wheat stem sawfly.

“Our cutting height for stubble actually impacts the natural enemy’s life cycle, quite a bit more than the sawfly,” said Jorgensen.

If producers want to help the parasitoid survive, they should leave about six inches of stem stubble in the field.

The wheat stem sawfly is affected by weather. Wheat stem sawflies can flourish with an early harvest. They also do better in hot, dry and even drought-like conditions.

However, in 2025, there was a reduction in population in the wheat stem sawfly in Alberta.

Forty Mile County and Warner County saw higher percentages of cutting and higher sawfly populations.

“But really, outside of those hotspots, we did not see much,” Jorgensen said.

There were reports of higher rates of parasitism, due to the better moisture situation.

In areas with consistently high sawfly pressures, growers can use durum wheat varieties with solid stems. There is also a solid stem Canadian Red Spring variety that will be available, as well as some semi-solid varieties.

“While we were doing our surveying, we saw quite a bit of use of those solid stem varieties. There are producers in those hotspots that are starting to switch to using those varieties to manage sawflies,” Jorgensen said.

Scientists have some idea of what will happen to the wheat stem sawfly population in 2026.

“We get a good idea of what those populations are like going into the winter from our survey,” Jorgensen said.

“We don’t see a lot of winter kill. They’re nestled cosy in those stems. We’re probably going to see similar amounts of sawfly coming out in the spring, as we have now in our surveys,” they said.

A high rate of parasitism may cause a bit of reduction, but the pressure at the start of the year is not going to be as high as it could have been.

“The conditions next year are going to determine whether we see an increase again in those populations,” Jorgensen said.

If there is a dry year with an early harvest, and parasitoids can’t establish well, there might be an increase in sawfly population.

“But we’re going into next year with lower pressure than we did coming into this year for sure.”

While the wheat stem sawfly can reproduce in most other cereals, except for oats, the insects pose the biggest economic concern for wheat.

In a heavy wheat steam sawfly infestation, a producer can lose 10 to 15 per cent of their yield from sawflies feeding and reducing seed weight and production quality.

“But the big loss with wheat stem sawfly is when they cut the stem, and you can lose that complete stem and make it unharvestable,” Jorgensen said.

“It can be dramatic if there are high numbers. Each sawfly is going to cut off one stem. Typically, the wheat stem sawfly will cut more stems around the edges of a field, so the centre of the field will not see many losses unless there is a tight crop rotation.”

Growers who continually have problems with the wheat stem sawfly should consider using a semi-solid or solid wheat variety and have a diverse crop rotation. Wheat stem sawfly cannot reproduce on broadleaf crops and cannot develop on oat crops.

“Just keep your eye out when you’re out harvesting to see what kind of amount of cutting you have if you’re in that sawfly area,” Jorgensen said.

“Producers might want to keep in mind what their individual fields look like when they’re making those decisions.”

The 2025 survey was completed by Alberta Ag’s Plant and Bee Health Surveillance staff, which includes Jorgensen, Shelley Barkley and a technician. Agronomists and agriculture fieldmen lined up fields, and producers offered their fields for survey. The survey is completed after harvest.

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Cache Valley virus is a mosquito-borne disease which was first discovered in Utah’s Cache Valley in 1956. It has spread across North America over the decades, posing a threat primarily to producers in regions with significant mosquito populations.

It primarily affects sheep, but it has also been found in other small ruminants such as goats.

No vaccine or treatment exists for Cache Valley virus, which can cause abortions and stillbirths in small ruminants such as sheep.

“We’ve seen producers lose up to 30 per cent of their lamb crop in a single season,” said Saskatchewan-based veterinarian Heidi Dubé, while speaking at the Alberta Sheep Breeders Association symposium in Camrose in October.

“The virus can cause extreme birth defects, including scoliosis, fused joints and neurological complications.”

The virus has been found to only impact pregnant sheep in the first 48 days of pregnancy. Dubé said that although about 65 per cent of sheep which have been tested show exposure to the virus, it is only those in the early weeks of pregnancy that are vulnerable to its effects.

“Non-pregnant ewes or sheep that are pregnant beyond that 48 days typically don’t show any clinical disease at all and are typically able to mount a very good immune response to the virus and have no impact on the pregnancy whatsoever,” she said.

“However, in the case of a pregnant ewe during her first trimester, the virus could cross the placenta to infect the fetus, resulting in the symptoms of abortions, stillbirth, congenital defects and so on.”

Steps for prevention

Dubé said there are certain types of mosquitoes that are known to be more likely to carry Cache Valley virus, but studies have shown that more and more varieties of mosquitoes are being found to carry it as well.

There is no vaccine for prevention, and Dubé says there are none on the way. But other steps can be taken to try to prevent infection in sheep.

Since the virus is solely spread through mosquito bites, the first option would be to adjust your operation’s breeding season to early spring or late fall to avoid mosquito season altogether.

If that is not feasible on your operation, managing standing water in the area could play a large role in minimizing the mosquito population on your property.

“Standing water that doesn’t get disturbed at all is your highest source of mosquitoes. Draining all your water pails or emptying your tire swings or any other source of standing water is worth thinking about,” Dubé said.

“The basic gist is that wherever you can reduce any standing water, I would encourage you to do so.”

Testing infected fetuses

Diagnosis of the virus remains challenging, with most detection occurring through postmortem examination of aborted fetuses.

Dubé said it would be beneficial for producers to have their fetuses or stillborn lambs tested for the virus. At worst, it would give the producer peace of mind that another more serious issue is not present in their flock.

“What I have found when I’ve tested, I really like the elimination of diagnosis.”

Human transmission

Cache Valley virus can be transmitted to humans, although it is rare.

Symptoms in humans are generally flu-like, so human transmissions of Cache Valley virus often go unreported.

Future outlook

Dubé said there are really no expectations for a vaccine or treatment for Cache Valley virus on the horizon. But the hope is that, with time, ewes will be able to develop an immunity to the virus.

“There’s lots of questions about it that we don’t have answers for right now. I think there’s a lot of hope that they get long-term immunity to it, but we really don’t know yet,” she said.

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Pesticides, insecticides, herbicides and fungicides are used to deal with pests, said Justin Pahara, research scientist and principal investigator in the Nano Lab, Agriculture and Agri-Food, Lethbridge.

“The way they work now is they’re broad spectrum, meaning when you spray them, they impact different other species, whether it is a plant, insect or fungi,” he said.

All these materials can present complications, which could easily be solved by nanotechnology.

The researchers focused their first series of tests on lygus bugs and cutworms.

Chemicals tend to target the nervous system of insects. Imidacloprid is the most used insecticide, and its molecule mimics nicotine. The chemicals are administered in low doses that do not impact humans and target major anatomical structures that exists across all insects.

Pahara and his team of five research assistants are working on new crop treatments which target pests at the level of DNA.

“DNA is specific to a particular organism,” said Pahara.

“When you go across a species, from a honeybee to a cutworm, their genomes are quite different. And this gives us the opportunity to leverage that through a couple different ways.”

There’s another molecule in cells called RNA, which is basically a copy of DNA.

“RNA is the intermediary between DNA and proteins, and there’s a very special pathway mechanism that happens in cells. If you put a small piece of very specific RNA into a cell that’s foreign to that cell, there’s a good chance the cell will recognize it as foreign, and then it will act similarly to an antibody and an immune response. It’ll use that little piece of DNA that it found to target and cut up more of the RNA it sees,” he said.

RNA is often used for viruses, because most viruses are RNA viruses.

“You don’t have to use it just for viruses. You can really use it for any sort of RNA in the plant. It could even be the plant or insect’s own RNA,” he said.

The new crop treatments will use RNA to target specific important things within a target insect.

“It’s highly technical, but basically, we’re targeting specific genomics or nucleic acid fingerprints within each (insect),” Pahara said.

The research team, which includes Pahara and students from the University of Lethbridge, the University of Calgary and the University of Alberta, are developing methods to see where the nano systems are going into any insect, so they can design that RNA to be active, and target something that will work.

Pahara said a key target is to understand if things are sticking to insects and going inside them.

The team did some work at Canada’s Synchotron, based in Saskatoon. The Synchotron is a particle accelerator which accelerates electrons to the speed of light. Those electrons are then diverted and converted in high energy X-rays. These X-rays go into little rooms all around the Synchotron ring.

“The X-rays are about 10,000 times more than what a medical X-ray would be,” said Pahara.

To investigate treatments against lygus bugs, the team used different beam lines, which have different capabilities.

“The one we used is called the BioXAS. This one is cool, because it allows you to image something just like you would in a camera,” said Pahara.

But unlike a camera, the BioXAS pixels give a full spectrum of information and reveal atomic elements present in each pixel.

“You get this cool image, but within it, you’re able to probe and see exactly what chemical elements are there,” he said.

The researchers treated insects with nanoparticles and nucleic acids and watched where these elements went within the insect.

“By the chemical makeup of our nanoparticles, we’re able to detect them within the images that come out of the BioXAS equipment,” he said.

The BioXAS usually gives a two-dimensional image, but the researchers wanted a 3D image. They treated the insects with formulations, and then chopped them up into thin slices, so each insect was separated into 40 different slices, and then imaged.

“With the output image, we combined them back to create a three-dimensional object. We had this three-dimensional insect, where we could see where all the elements are in it. That’s important because it gives us three dimensions of spatial resolution, so we can see where stuff is going,” he said.

Using nanotechnology prevent pests from evolving a resistance to chemical control and keeps pest control tools available for producers by reducing their reliance on regulated chemicals. It also reduces the risk of non-tariff trade barriers and residue problems.

“We need new crop treatments,” said Pahara. “We need them to be less toxic.”

If crop treatments are determined to be so specific that they don’t harm other insects, let alone humans, that allows for a lot more freedom of use, he said.

If an insect’s DNA changes, crop treatments can also be adjusted, he said.

“It allows us to tweak and reprogram them easily, whereas with the old generation of treatments, they’re just small chemicals. You just can’t tweak them,” he said.

The research has now been expanded to fusarium head blight and kochia.

“We’re developing methods that work for screening, and we’re starting to ramp up screening, which means we’re testing lots of different kinds of formulations that have different nano materials in them. As we screen thousands of different systems, we’ll know the ones that may work best,” he said.

After material has been tested in the lab, it will eventually move to greenhouse trials and field trials.

The post Scientist working with nanotechnology to control pests in crops appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

The event brought together growers, livestock producers, researchers, policymakers, and industry partners in celebration of Ontario’s agri-food sector.

Jocelyn Smith, an assistant professor of field crop entomology at Guelph, shared ongoing challenges facing farmers as pest-resistant crops continue to emerge in Ontario.

“Pests keep changing, and new pests come into Ontario. We need to learn about them,” she said, adding that her department continues to develop monitoring programs to test and evaluate new pest control products.

She noted that there is also ongoing evaluation of old economic thresholds in an effort to develop more cost-effective treatment options.

As of 2006, she said that there has been an increase of insecticide-resistant corn, with the most common pest threat being the European corn borer.

She said that 85 per cent of corn grown in Ontario is genetically modified. As of 2018, she noted that there has been resistance discovered in Nova Scotia.

To help slow the spread of resistance, she added that her team is partnering with organizations across Canada and the United States to develop further prevention programs.

Maximizing Calf Health

Michael Steele, a professor with the department of animal biosciences, continued the discussion, sharing updates on his team’s research to enhance the quality of breeding calves in Ontario.

He noted that 40 per cent of calves in Ontario are crossbred beef animals, as producers are breeding more of their lower end dairy cows to beef cows.

He added that research is also being done to reduce the level of microbial use during the early stages of calving. Genetic markers are also being traced among bulls to select the best breeding options.

The next stage of research, he added, is post-weaning nutrition. He said many calves are given a high-starch diet and that new research will explore if this is an environmentally friendly and healthy option, versus other diet alternatives.

The overall objective is to develop a better understanding of how pre-weaning nutritional and management factors can impact gastrointestinal development and metabolism during the pre-weaning phase and later in life.

For more of our coverage of Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show 2025, visit the Farmtario landing page.

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Locusts, which can destroy huge areas of crops in a matter of days, traditionally breed in secluded places along rivers or in uncultivated areas, and controlling that is almost impossible in regions neighbouring the frontline.

Why it matters: Locusts are destroying crops in Ukraine, a major global exporter of grain and oilseeds.

The situation is complicated by record high temperatures this summer, the inability to use aircraft for locust control and the absence of birds – locusts’ natural predators – which are avoiding the combat zone.

Local and government officials declined to provide data on the extent of the locust infestation or damage caused so far. Ukraine is the world’s largest sunflower oil exporter and before the war ranked fifth among wheat exporters.

Swarms of locusts are covering roads, fields and bushes in Zaporizhzhia region and farmers say the insects have destroyed up to a third of their sunflower crops.

“We saw a big swarm. And the next day the ‘infantry’ marched in. The small ones, they ate everything that was hanging low, they ate everything,” said Oleh Tolmatov, 46, a resident of Kushuhum village in Zaporizhzhia region.

Russia, which invaded Ukraine in 2022, has partially occupied the southern Ukrainian regions of Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv and Kherson, forcing farmers to abandon their fields.

Grains and oilseeds are traditional crops for these regions.

“The reason for all of this is high temperatures, the reason for all of this is abandoned land, the reason for all of this is the corresponding Russian aggression,” Vadym Chaikovskyi, Ukraine’s Chief Phytosanitary Inspector, told Reuters.

Denys Marchuk, deputy head of Ukraine’s largest farm producers’ union UAC, said that the destruction of the Kakhovka dam on the Dnipro River by Russian troops two years ago had created huge swampy areas where locusts are breeding.

Kyiv says that Russia blew up the Kakhovka dam in the summer of 2023, draining thousands of square kilometres of the former reservoir and leaving farms and Europe’s largest nuclear power plant without water.

— Reporting by Sergiy Chalyi

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All three pest populations were relatively small, although hot spots appeared throughout the province. In all three cases, releases from Alberta Agriculture and Irrigation emphasized scouting and when to do so for best results.

Bertha armyworm

Based on the 2024 moth catch, there appears to be no threat in the coming season but appearances can be deceiving and the type of winter could make a big difference.

“Snow cover encourages successful overwintering (in Bertha armyworm). In contrast, low snow cover with cold temperatures reduces winter survival,” read the media release.

The Alberta Bertha Armyworm Monitoring Program celebrated 29 years in 2024. It has grown to include a partnership among agronomists, agricultural fieldmen and farmers who maintain the pheromone trap network.

Alberta Agriculture organizes the network and maintains the map and the web-based application. The Prairie Pest Monitoring Network provides the traps and lures. This year, there were 273 trap sites across the province.

“These traps help to determine the density and distribution of moths. Moth counts from the traps are submitted weekly using a web-based application from a smart phone.”

Producers are encouraged not to replace field scouting with forecast maps or insect survey results. They’re also advised to have a sufficient amount of pheromone traps to act as early warnings.

“No field should be treated for Bertha armyworm without proper field scouting. Moth catches indicate the potential for damage but the actual populations must be assessed.”

Scouting adjacent fields is also recommended.

“Experience from previous outbreaks has shown us that adjacent fields or even different parts of the same field can have greatly different Bertha armyworm numbers. Although traps are set in canola fields, producers growing flax, peas, faba bean and quinoa also need to pay attention to this system as this insect is also known to feed on these crops.”

Cabbage seedpod weevil

This pest slipped under the threshold in 2024.

Surveyors looked for cabbage seedpod weevils in 222 southern and central Alberta fields in late June and early July when canola was at 20 to 25 per cent flower. With the exception of a couple hot spots, weevils in southern Alberta remained just shy of the economic threshold.

“There could have (been some) over threshold, but the nature of a random survey means they might not be sampled,” the province stated.

That said, there’s no room for complacency. Cabbage seedpod weevil overwinters. It also thrives in cooler temperatures and rainfall like that seen in August, favouring development of new generations.

Although they were well below threshold, surveyors were surprised to find weevils in central Alberta’s Westaskiwin County.

“It has been a while since we have seen weevils north of Ponoka County,” said the release.

This emphasizes the need for weevil scouting from the time the canola crop enters its bud stage through to flowering. Alberta Agriculture recommends that growers select 10 locations in each field and count the number of weevils using 180 degree sweeps.

To obtain a representative estimate of weevil numbers throughout the field, sampling locations should include its perimeter and interior.

Scouting for weevils can also offer a peek into lygus bugs and diamondback moth larvae populations if the canola is monitored into the early pod stage.

The 2024 cabbage seedpod weevil survey was completed by Alberta Agriculture and Irrigation, Plant and Bee Health. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada at Beaverlodge conducted the canola survey on the Alberta side of the Peace River region. No weevils have been found in that area to date.

Grasshoppers

A unique trend in grasshopper behaviour appeared to continue in 2024.

One species in the Peace and northern Alberta regions, commonly known as Bruner’s spur-throat grasshopper, seems to be in a cycle that sees them come out in odd-numbered years. Grasshopper numbers were low in 2024, but they could be out in force in 2025.

Grasshoppers in general were not as populous in southern Alberta in 2024 as they were the previous year. Cool, moist June weather initially slowed their development but a hot July and a warm and dry August and September created suitable conditions for egg laying.

According to the release, outbreak potential exists in the southern region and along the eastern border in 2025.

Experts recommend scouting roadsides, field edges, field margins, fencelines and areas of green growth in late May and June. Also, scout any area that had high grasshopper concentrations in the previous year.

If pesticides are required, Alberta Agriculture urges farmers to note label precautions about user safety, proper application methods and how to reduce impact on non-target organisms.

“It is important to remember that control measures are intended to protect the crops from economic damage and are never successful in totally eliminating grasshopper populations. It is easier to scout and control grasshoppers earlier in their life cycle rather than waiting until they are more mobile.”

The 2024 grasshopper survey map is based on adult grasshopper counts conducted in late July and August 2024 by the Agricultural Fieldmen of Alberta.

A fall interview with Curtis Rempel, vice-president of crop production and innovation with the Canola Council of Canada, also revealed the presence of Lygus bugs around Lethbridge and the Peace Country in 2024.

Early season cutworms were found at seeding time in parts of Alberta, while pockets of flea beetles were spotted in the Peace.

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