Among the greens, yellows and browns of farm fields last summer, Manitoba farmers noticed a lot of things that were black and shiny — and moving.
Late in the season, farmers began finding crickets climbing up high into canola plants, dining on pods.
It got so bad that some farmers even sprayed to control the crickets, even though they’re usually a beneficial insect.
Huh?
It’s an insect mystery that has perplexed thousands of farmers, as was obvious at St Jean Farm Days when farmers had a chance to chat with Manitoba Agriculture entomologist John Gavloski.
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“I’ve never seen them like that,” said one farmer, hoping Gavloski could explain.
“It’s a unique combination,” said Gavloski.
The reason for the cricket eruption appears to be that the same dry conditions that favoured grasshoppers also helped crickets thrive, multiple years of dryness allowed egg banks to build up, dry late season conditions left crickets short on green ground growth and weeds to feed on, and late-seeded crops from spring saturation provided a feast of green canola and flax into late August and early September for crickets bold enough to climb plants to the top.
“The crickets were actually up feeding on things, like canola pods and flax bolls, at a time of year when the plants normally wouldn’t have been as attractive,” said Gavloski in an interview.
How the crickets do this coming season is up to the weather. Because egg numbers are high, good cricket conditions could mean another big population.
But crickets are generally a good population to provide a home for. They munch on weeds and grasshopper eggs, so they’re almost never a management issue.
Last year’s strangeness that saw crickets eating canola pods will not likely recur in 2023, Gavloski said, but farmers should keep an eye out just in case.
“I’m skeptical they will become a pest like grasshoppers,” he said.
