Tarnished plant bug (a lygus bug) on clover. Photo: Scott Bauer, ARS/USDA

Trap crops to cut faba bean spraying?

Trap cropping may concentrate pest insects away from the main crop so they can be better managed, with less ecological spillover

Trap cropping may draw pest insects away from the main crop and concentrate them for precise blitz control, less insecticide needed and friendlier farming for beneficial insects.



Red-winged blackbirds fly over a U.S. sunflower crop in 2017. Pic: Supercaliphotolistic/iStock/Getty Images

Bird repellent gets emergency approval for sunflowers

Manitoba sunflower growers can now apply Avian Control repellent to keep blackbirds away during their 2025 harvest season

A product called Avian Control has received emergency-use approval to become the first chemical bird repellent available to Manitoba sunflower growers, in time for use this harvest.

An adult migratory grasshopper, one of the pest species of grasshopper on the Canadian Prairies.

Manitoba 2025 grasshopper season gets early start

Proper identification, aiding natural predators, weather, spraying can all play into grasshopper control on the Canadian Prairies

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.