Wondering what pests might be picking away at farm profits in 2018?
Depending on where you’re located, the pea leaf weevil and the cabbage seedpod weevil might warrant extra attention.
Jennifer Otani, a pest management biologist with Agriculture Canada, said 2017 risk maps for the two insect pests show the pea leaf weevil has expanded its territory into northern Alberta.
Densities of the cabbage seedpod weevil have also increased across parts of southern Saskatchewan.
In terms of 2017 risk maps, “the biggest change in distribution will be the pea leaf weevil, because now, for the first time, we have found the weevil in the Peace River region … so that is going to be a big change in where that insect has historically been,” Otani said.
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Recorded densities of the cabbage seedpod weevil were also higher in southern Saskatchewan.
Although distributions of the insect did not change significantly between 2016 and 2017, recorded densities were up, with counts of 10 to 90 weevils per 25 sweeps common across much of the province’s southwest and south-central grain-growing regions.
Otani said it’s difficult to predict what insect pests will pose a threat to specific areas.
Her advice?
Subscribe to the Prairie Pest Monitoring Network’s weekly updates at prairiepestmonitoring.blogspot.ca and pay attention to risk maps.
“I think for the most part, everything is going to depend on how the spring turns out,” Otani said.
“We’ve had quite an interesting winter so we’ll see what happens … because definitely all of these insect pests are going to be influenced both by how cold it was and how much snow we had this winter.”Spring conditions will also influence insect populations.
Factors such as the speed of the spring melt, moisture conditions, temperature and late season frost or snowfall could all come into play.
Insect pressures are always “hard to predict, and given the weather that we seem to be having these past few years, it’s proving to be even more of a challenge,” Otani said.
