CALGARY (Staff) — Cool, wet weather dampened grasshoppers’ appetites so damage to last summer’s crops was limited.
If those same conditions prevail this year, the insects’ ability to grow and reproduce will be slowed for another year, said a report from Agriculture Canada.
This year’s forecast said the severity of grasshoppers will be determined by the weather. They thrive in warm, dry weather so those conditions in spring and early summer increase hatchling survival. A warm fall is ideal for embryo development.
Grasshopper counts were done in Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia.
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Hugh Philip of the B.C. provincial ministry said three years of drought and two years of heavy grasshopper infestation caused tremendous forage damage in the Peace region.
A clear-winged variety that feeds only on grass made up about 90 percent of the population for that area. As the weather improves this spring the northern grasslands are filling in again and Philip expects the insect population to be lower. Late summer rains last year slowed down reproduction and delayed maturity, he said. In some of the grasshopper “hot spots” where competition for food was high, disease started to wipe them out.
Alberta’s hot spots appeared all over the map but infestations will likely be heaviest in the northern regions this summer, said the Agriculture Canada survey. The wettest Alberta summer since 1902 inhibited egg laying and cool weather slowed their growth.
Increases in the grasshopper population were found in the counties of Barrhead, Beaver, Lac Ste. Anne, Parkland, Vermilion River, Wetaskiwin and in the municipal districts of Bonnyville and Taber.
Alberta and Saskatchewan were plagued mostly by migratory grasshoppers, the two-striped grasshopper and Packard’s grasshopper. Saskatchewan’s hot spots were in the southwestern corner.
Manitoba Agriculture entomologist Andy Kolach said grasshoppers are not expected to be a problem this year. Two cool, wet summers reduced the number of adults laying eggs and the number of eggs that survived.
Farmers are advised to monitor field margins, fence lines, roadsides and crops on stubble. Spraying isn’t recommended until there are more than 10 grasshoppers per square metre.
