By farmnewsNOW Staff

Sask. farmers still feeling the impact from grasshoppers and other insects

Aug 31, 2023 | 8:55 AM

Farmers in the prairies have dealt with a number of issues this season from hot, dry weather to insects like grasshoppers destroying crops.

This summer has already seen a number of Rural Municipalities in Saskatchewan declare agriculture disasters as a result of insects and drought.

Taking a closer look at the impact of insects on Saskatchewan farms is Meghan Vankowsky, a research scientist in entomology with Agriculture and Agri-Foods Canada. She told farmnewsNOW that the southwest part of the province was hit particularly hard by grasshoppers, adding the insects have taken advantage of the drought conditions.

“It’s already been hot and dry and not ideal for plant growth,” she said. “But those conditions were ideal for grasshoppers, and so that just has added extra stress to crop production and in some areas, the crops are easily being written off because of that combination of fact.”

She said right now, it’s too hard to tell exactly how much has been lost by Saskatchewan farmers and ranchers as those numbers are not yet available from the Ministry of Agriculture.

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Vankowsky mentioned that grasshoppers only have a one-year generation time and will lay their eggs before the winter and hatch in the spring.

She said farmers can watch for the density of grasshoppers and eggs in the fall to know what to expect for next year with online maps later to come from Agriculture and Agri-Foods Canada.

Vankowsky hopes that farmers and ranchers will take the steps needed to protect their crops for next year.

“It’s going to be important, especially if we still are in this hot and dry weather cycle to start scouting early for grasshopper nymphs and then to try to manage those nymphs when they’re young and tiny because they’re easier to kill when they’re small, as compared to when they get to the adult (stage).”

Vankowsky briefly noted that diamondback moths, an insect commonly found on canola plants, are another insect of concern for farmers.