WINNIPEG — In a contest that benefits no one, flea beetles are being held up as the pest that likely takes the most money away from Manitoba crop farmers.
Cutworms did their best to chew up plants and edge out flea beetles for the dubious honour, but in the eyes of one industry expert, it was the type of crops each one chooses that made the difference.
“If I had to take a guess, I would say flea beetles on canola would be the most economically (damaging) because most growers would have had insecticide-treated seeds to begin with, so there’s an extra cost for that insecticide on the seed to kill them,” said John Garlicky, an entomologist with Manitoba Agriculture.
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While the actual dollar amount of the damage is impossible to quantify, Gavloski notes cutworms, which usually target cereals, can often be eliminated with just one spray.
“So the cost for the flea beetles is the seed treatment plus any additional sprays they may need,” he added.
Gavloski notes flea beetles and cutworms can also overwinter in Manitoba, and right now they have excellent conditions for doing so.
“We have lots of snow, which is good insulation for them, so I don’t anticipate a lot of winterkill,” he said.
Square-nosed fungus beetles and foreign grain beetles were also pests in 2015. They carried out their usual routine of eating fungus on field plants before being scooped up in combines and transported to terminals, where they caused entire loads to be refused entry.
But in the end, it was flea beetles that likely caused the most damage in 2015, and will again be in the crosshairs of most producers in the new year.
