A hand holds up two Oxeye daisy flowers.

Moth provides pasture biocontrol for oxeye daisy

Agriculture Canada researchers learn that the Dichrorampha aeratana moth can help livestock and forage producers fight the weed

A European moth is being used in parts of Western Canada as a biological control agent against oxeye daisy, an invasive plant that threatens forage crops and pastures.




Devon Baete and Wayne Lees of Manitoba’s Squeal on Pigs show the difference between wild and domestic pigs. The skull on the right is a wild pig caught in Manitoba, while the skull on the left is a domestic pig.  |  Ed White photo

Man. wild pig control requires different strategy

Copying U.S. strategies has not worked in Canada because the northern pigs act differently than their southern cousins

HOLLAND, Man. — Manitoba’s rugged wild pigs ain’t like the pampered porkers down south. That means finding, trapping, controlling and monitoring them can’t be done in the same way that Texans do it. As millions of people have seen on YouTube, Texans and other southern plains humans have become adept at trapping large numbers of […] Read more

A British Columbia agency that is calling for a ban on all watercraft from out of province says the move isn’t meant to target prairie boaters. Instead, it is intended to protect the province’s waterways from invasive mussels until the provincial government improves the inspection system.  |  File photo

Stricter restrictions wanted for mussels

British Columbia’s Okanagan Basin Water Board has renewed calls for a ban on all out-of-province watercraft, following the discovery of invasive quagga mussels in neighbouring Idaho. James Littley, OBWB deputy administrator, said an inspection system is in place but if inspection stations are closed, “anybody can come in from anywhere and launch boats in the […] Read more


Alberta uses its ongoing surveillance program to prevent zebra and quagga mussels from entering the province’s waterways and irrigation infrastructure.  |  File photo

Invasive mussel alert in Idaho raises concern in Alberta

Idaho state officials have activated a rapid response plan after invasive quagga mussels were found on the Snake River near Twin Falls. State officials warn the invasive mussels threaten the Columbia River basin, which runs across the Pacific Northwest including British Columbia. Related stories on this issue: Mussels close in on Alberta irrigation district Pink […] Read more

A wild pig moves through dense underbrush.

Eradicate wild pigs to avoid disease risk: pork council

Rene Roy, chair of the Canadian Pork Council, said industry wants to see a cross-government initiative to eradicate wild pigs.
 He said the wild pig population would become a pool of disease if something like African swine fever entered it. 


Zebra mussels have long been identified as a significant risk to western regional waters in Canada and the United States. New tools to identify them before they become established may offer some solutions to controlling the invasive pests.  |  USDA photo

Computers know their invasive mussels

Artificial intelligence, like that used in autonomous farm equipment, could be taught to recognize and report quagga and zebra mussels

New research on detection of quagga and zebra mussels is testing artificial intelligence capabilities to detect the invasive species before they become endemic. Graham Taylor, interim research director at Vector Institute, said the technology has been tested on Ontario lakes and has proven to be as accurate as human expert estimates of mussel populations in […] Read more


Scientists think that any earthworms that once lived here were killed off in the last ice age. After that, we were an earthworm-free zone until European settlers brought them along for the ride. | Getty Images

A surprising entry on the unwanted list

The Western Producer has been writing a lot about invasive species recently. Actually, we’ve been writing about them for a lot longer than that because the majority of our most challenging weeds came from somewhere else, making them the original invasive species. However, other nasty critters that don’t belong here have been making the news […] Read more

Wild pigs can have litters of six or more piglets and reproduce all year. | Getty Images

Research attempts to nail down wild pig threat

Project hopes to increases awareness of disease potential, distribution in Alberta and interaction with livestock farms

A research project costing nearly $1 million will try to pinpoint how much of a threat the increasing spread of invasive wild pigs in Alberta poses to the province’s producers. Wild pigs can carry numerous diseases that could affect livestock such as cattle as well as infect humans, said Mathieu Pruvot, an assistant professor at […] Read more