Farmers who spray their crops for grasshopper pests this summer need to make sure they don’t do more harm than good, says a professor of environmental science at the University of Lethbridge.
Tag Archives Beneficial insects
Manitoba 2025 grasshopper season gets early start
Proper identification, aiding natural predators, weather, spraying can all play into grasshopper control on the Canadian Prairies
B.C. company pitches bee health tool
ApiSave says product will boost bee immunity to overcome health challenges
Honeybee hive loss has been a problem for Canadian beekeepers. B.C. company ApiSave thinks their bee health product could help make more robust, resilient bees.
Watch early for insect crop pests
Scouting early can help Manitoba farmers protect against crop-damaging insects this year
Scouting early can help protect Manitoba crops from pest insects like flea beetles, cutworms or grasshoppers.
Creating a pro-pollinator farm
Limiting tillage and creating habitat for beneficial insects can pad the producer’s bottom line
Limiting tillage and creating habitat for beneficial insects like pollinators can pad the producer’s bottom line
Making regenerative ag work in potato production
Colorado regen potato grower shares lessons for Manitoba
A trait of regenerative agriculture is that no two farms are the same, but there are five basics behind the philosophy: grazing animals, crop diversity, living roots in the soil, avoidance of bare ground and low soil disturbance. That last one is a challenge for potato production, since producers need to get under the soil
Army in place to fight crop insect pests
There’s a natural defence insect force guarding grain fields
It was the year of the armyworm in Manitoba when a high numbers of adults blew in this spring. But farmers have their own army, plus an air force, ready to meet the invaders and possibly keep their numbers below economic thresholds. “I don’t have enough time to talk about the enormous number of different
The under-recognized aphid eaters
The larvae of lady beetles are less commonly identified, but take just as big a bite out of crop pest populations
The insect experts say that every farmer across the Prairies should have a huge picture of coccinellidae larvae on their machine shop wall. If the scientific name doesn’t sound familiar, the common name certainly will. It’s the family of beetles that includes ladybugs and Asian lady beetles. “Everybody recognizes the adults and everyone knows they’re
Comment: Lessons learned from spider guts
Spider stomach contents can sharpen our understanding of their role in agricultural pest control
Spiders are important insect predators, and understanding what’s in their gut could help agriculture deploy them against pests. That’s easier said than done. Spider diet, and how much they actually target crop pest species, is crucial to determine how effective spiders are at biocontrol. However, since spiders liquefy the remains of prey with digestive enzymes,
Beneficial insects bring farmer benefit
They’re an often overlooked limiting factor for crop eating pests
Insecticides do a lot of good work in fields but they’re also a measure of last resort. The first line of defence is frequently an unpaid and overlooked army of beneficial insects that protect the crop by feasting on its insect foes. John Gavloski, Manitoba’s provincial entomologist, told a recent Crop Talk webinar that often when pest populations
Protecting insect workers
A little management can go a long way towards keeping this unpaid workforce on your farm
It’s a big challenge to control insect pests while doing the minimum harm to beneficial insects. Manitoba entomologist John Gavloski has a few pointers. First, trust and use the economic thresholds that are available. “If you are spraying for insects when you don’t need to, especially with some broad-spectrum insecticide, there can be a lot
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
