Manitoba Agriculture experts at Manitoba Ag Days 2025 run down the weather, insect and other issues they saw producers fighting in the 2024 growing season.
Tag Archives flea beetles
Insects, weather top 2024 crop stories at Manitoba Ag Days
Manitoba Agriculture experts look back on 2024 and the crop issues they saw producers fighting
Western mustard growers get new flea beetle seed treatment option
Mustard has been added to Bayer's Buteo start label to beat back flea beetles
They’re baack: Canola council urges vigilance with flea beetles
The annual fight with flea beetle pressure is about to begin
Flea beetle damage was relatively low last year compared to the crushing pressure of previous seasons, but producers can’t afford complacency. “There was less foliar insecticide used for flea beetles than the previous years, and maybe less flea beetles to some degree, but there were still a lot of flea beetles out there,” said Manitoba
VIDEO: Beating back flea beetle pressure
This insect foe need not get the upper hand in your canola crop
Canola being the high-value crop that it is, it’s easy to understand the anxiety for growers when flea beetles begin making a meal of plants that are freshly emerged from the soil. At Manitoba Ag Days last week, Chris Manchur, agronomy specialist with the Canola Council of Canada, spoke about the major pest pressures in
Manitoba farmers get flea beetle reprieve
Faster plant establishment has helped canola get ahead of the pests
There is good news about flea beetles. “This year has definitely been a better story when it comes to flea beetles for Manitoba,” said Courtney Boyachek, agronomy specialist with the Canola Council of Canada. To say flea beetles have been a nuisance for canola farmers for the past several years would be an understatement. Normally,
Grasshopper populations on the rise
Lessons from organic farms reveal a broader approach to grasshopper management
There is a low risk of a widespread grasshopper infestation in Manitoba this year, though there are a few areas of concern. “I don’t want people to let the guard down,” says John Gavloski, Manitoba Agriculture’s entomologist. “I certainly don’t want to indicate that we’re in an outbreak because I don’t believe that’s necessarily true.
![“[Flea beetle] seem to overwinter well under our Prairie conditions and we don’t have the natural enemies that seem to knock a population out, the way it does to other insects.” – John Gavloski.](https://static.manitobacooperator.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/09102252/Flea-beetles_Brent-Schram_cmyk-660x420.jpeg)
The year in pest insects on Manitoba fields
There were many of the usual suspects and some strange new issues in Manitoba fields last season
Flea beetles and grasshoppers topped provincial entomologist John Gavloski’s list as the peskiest insects on Manitoba farms this past season and he said producers should be on the lookout for them next year. In addition, “we’ve got three aphid species this year along with your army worms, lygus and cutworms, but our biggest surprise of the year
What’s the future of flea beetle management in canola?
Producers are looking for answers, but experts say there aren’t many new solutions
If you’re a Prairie farmer on Twitter, you’ve probably seen the posts. In the background, a stand of canola languishes, pock-marked with flea beetle feeding. The producer is on a second foliar pass, or maybe third or fourth. Spring 2022 has given growers another frustrating year for flea beetles after a wet and delayed seeding
Flea beetles meet the flood
Is there reason to be optimistic about flea beetles this year?
After a couple of dry years and significant losses due to flea beetle infestations, canola farmers are asking if the wet soils they’re planting into might be cause for optimism. The answer, it appears, is a resounding, “maybe.” Stress to canola is stress to canola, whether it comes from a wet spring or a year
Targeting your crop enemies
Is the future of crop protection environmentally friendly biotechnology?
So far biotechnology in agriculture has driven the use of crop protection products through genetically engineered herbicide resistance. But the next wave could displace at least some of those applications by opening up another front in the war on two familiar canola concerns — sclerotinia and flea beetle. Mark Belmonte, a professor of biological science
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
