Which insects to watch for in 2025

To help refresh your insect management knowledge this growing season, this blog will review learnings from last year’s survey results, highlight 2025 monitoring efforts to watch for and take part in and showcase resources to simplify insect identification and decision making. Ongoing research efforts working to generate new knowledge and investigating new solutions are also noted.

Insect survey results

Prairie-wide monitoring outcomes

Provincial survey reports

In addition to Prairie-wide surveys, the results from provincial monitoring efforts are shared by the Western Committee on Crop Pests (WCCP) at the annual Western Forum on Pest Management (WFPM) meeting.

• Manitoba’s canola and mustard report provided updates on cutworms, root maggots, sap feeders (including lygus bugs, aster leafhoppers and aphids), defoliators (including flea beetles, bertha armyworm, diamondback moths, grasshoppers and cabbage seedpod weevils).
  • It noted that some unopened buds from canola flower midge (Contarinia brassicola) were found in canola fields in the Northwest region of Manitoba in late-July.
  • No pollen beetles (Brassicogethes viridescens) were found in the survey, which is reassuring to canola farmers.

• Saskatchewan’s canola and mustard report provided updates on the same canola pest insects, as well as field crickets that caused some damage to canola pods throughout the province. It also mentioned a few additional insects that weren’t found or didn’t cause significant damage, including:
  • No reports of damage in 2024 due to Red turnip beetles.
  • No swede midge (Contarinia nasturtii) were caught (despite pheromone monitoring).
  • No reports of significant damage caused by checkered white (Pontia protodice), despite reports of adults flying in May and some larvae mid-season.
  • No economic damage was caused by thrips , although there were scattered reports of the insect.
  • There were also no reports of Collembola (Bourletiella hortentsis), the garden springtail.
• Similarly, Alberta’s canola and mustard report summarized bertha armyworm, diamondback moth, cabbage seedpod weevil, flea beetle, cutworm and lygus bug monitoring outcomes.
  • Canola flower midge damage was reported in the northeast portion of the province (Stettler to Lloydminster) and in a field in Wheatland County, as mentioned in the report.
• The British Columbia insect pest report is also available on the WFPM website, along with the annual entomology meeting minutes and the recently updated Insect management in oilseeds guidelines for Western Canada.

Insect investigations in-progress

In addition to monitoring pest and beneficial insects populations and distribution, there are many other insect-related topics that are being worked on through various research projects. A few of these projects are listed below. More ongoing and completed insect-related projects are available on in the Hub library.

• The Cover crops for flea beetle management project is pairing small plot trials with on-farm testing in evaluating the impact of fall rye and oat cover crops on flea beetles and their natural enemies in canola.
• The Flea beetle resistance in canola study is working to develop new B. napus lines that produce hairs on their leaves and stems to act as a natural resistance to flea beetles, as the presence of these hairs deters the beetles by disrupting their normal feeding behavior.
• The Identifying key predators and their role in canola insect pest suppression project aims to identify the key predators of canola insect pests and lay the foundation to quantify their impact on pest populations, thus forming the basis for conservation biological control strategies.
• The role of insect feeding and plant defense responses in aster yellows disease study is working to generate leafhopper knowledge – such as evaluating the amount of time between leaf hoppers acquiring the aster yellows (AY) pathogen and transmitting it to plants – to improve management practices for aster leafhoppers and AY disease.
• The Develop and assess different strategies to reduce the impact of pollen beetle project will generate new knowledge on the pollen beetle, an invasive pest, which will help in making control decisions to reduce the economic impact of this pest on the industry.

2025 provincial programs & maps

Each of the Prairie provinces offers resources tailored to their own conditions, including:

• MANITOBA: Beneficial and pest insect factsheets, insect monitoring program protocols and trap results are available from Manitoba Agriculture.
  • Stay updated by subscribing to the weekly Crop Pest Updates from mid-May until late August and/or the Crop reports.
• SASKATCHEWAN: The Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture also provide helpful information on specific insects that are pests to canola, Economic Thresholds of Insect Pests, as well as a Bertha Armyworm Moth Count map and a Grasshopper Survey map.
  • Support the continued efforts toward robust pest-monitoring systems in Saskatchewan by becoming a pest monitoring partner and volunteering access to your farmland for pest monitoring. Learn more and sign up at Pest monitoring in Saskatchewan.
• ALBERTA: Alberta Agriculture and Irrigation features an Alberta insect pest monitoring network that provides annual survey results (including maps) as well as live maps showcasing real-time survey results of Bertha armyworm traps, cabbage seedpod weevils, cutworms and diamondback moths (pictured) and regional risk levels based on these datasets.
  • Sign up to get involved and support the ongoing pest monitoring efforts.
  • Sign up for the weekly Alberta Agri-News newsletter, which often contains crop pest and disease updates.

Helpful scouting guides

These resources can to help you accurately identify common, occasional and rare pest insects. They also help differentiate pest from beneficial insects, share lifecycle and feeding damage details to better inform pest management available options, and provide economic thresholds to guide when action is needed (or not).

Published June 11, 2025