It could be a heavy year for flea beetle feeding, especially since a lot of canola will emerge right at peak activity for the insect. High winds may force flea beetles off leaf tops and down to leaf undersides and leaf stems. This could actually make the situation worse, since it takes just a few bites on a stem to…
Insects
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Cutworms are showing up in big numbers in some fields across the Prairies, particularly in northeastern Alberta. Check emerged canola crops for bare patches, holes or notches in foliage, and clipped plants — telltale signs of cutworm feeding. At least four cutworm specifies may damage canola: pale western, redbacked, army and dingy. It helps to know which ones are doing…
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Scott Meers, the provincial entomologist for Alberta, provides an insect forecast for 2011 in this video provided by the Government of Alberta. Please click on the following link to access……
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Flea beetles are the most chronically damaging insect pest of canola in western Canada. Direct losses to oilseed production average 8-10% of the annual crop yield, and in outbreak years flea beetles can cause hundred of millions of dollars damage.The nominal economic threshold for flea beetles in canola crops in Canada is an average defoliation level of 25% or more…
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Fields taken out of pasture or hayland last year and planned for canola this year could have high wireworm and cutworm populations. Wireworms can wipe out a whole field of canola and no seed treatment or spray is registered for wireworm control in canola…
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Given the rush to complete the seeding task, growers can't forget to scout their already emerged crop. Keep an eye out for cutworm damage…
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Lygus feeding at the bud stage is rarely an economic cost — unless the canola is under some other stress, such as drought. Stressed canola may not be able to compensate for lost buds the way a healthy crop can…
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Young canola plants are vulnerable to numerous stresses, particularly flea beetles, cutworms and seedling diseases. It pays to scout often at this time of the season…