By Alice McFarlane

Moderate year for insect damage in Saskatchewan

Dec 15, 2020 | 5:01 PM

MELFORT, Sask. – Farmers had an average year dealing with insects.

Saskatchewan insect specialist James Tansey said the growing season started with flea beetles in canola.

“In the spring we had some localized flea beetle damage. Some of those sites experienced wind damage too so you had sand blasting coupled with flea beetle damage so there was some over spray for flea beetles and some reseeding of canola crops associated with that,” Tansey said.

There were some local hotspots with cutworms primarily the redback variety and some pale western cutworms in canola and other crops.

Saskatchewan Crop Insurance surveyed 1,170 sites around the province for grasshoppers. The two-stripe grasshopper was the most prevalent, according to Tansey.

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“We had hotspots near Birsay and Dinsmore with numbers exceeding economic thresholds,” Tansey said. “Typically, economic thresholds for grasshoppers is 10 per square metre or greater. We had numbers approaching the five to 10 per square metre in the south west in a number of different R.M.’s but also in the southeast, west central and central regions.”

There were also a few hot spots for clear-winged grasshoppers in the early summer including one in the R.M. of Craven. Tansey said the clear-winged grasshoppers were impacted by a fungus called Entomophthora.

“It was really laying waste to these populations. This fungus forces the grasshopper to climb on top of a plant and grab on and then the fungal spores rain down on their pals so it can have a relatively rapid decimating effect on the grasshopper populations in these cases.”

Strong winds during the spring had an effect on the diamondback moth population. Tansey said diamondback blow in at high altitudes, but they do not fair well with strong surface winds.

“Even a wind of about 10 kilometers per hour can greatly decrease their propensity to fly. We had early arrival, big numbers, but not a lot of diamondback damage. We did see some damage in the southeast in the early spring but very few reports of spraying,” Tansey said. “I think the wind really reduced their ability to get around, find mates, lay eggs, and contribute to the next generation.”

If it’s a wet spring Tansey said an insect to watch for will be the wheat midge, especially in northern areas.

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alice.mcfarlane@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @AliceMcF