An infosheet has been created that contains information on the swede midge life cycle, scouting for the pest in canola, and control options relevant to Ontario producers. Please click the link below to view the PDF. Swede Midge Infosheet Final 2016
Cereal leaf beetle is starting to show up in some fields in Ontario. A few locations tend to experience a higher frequency of infestations including fields near Dresden, Bolton, Stayner, Seaforth, and Clinton. But this does not mean that other fields in Ontario are not at risk. Cereal leaf beetle (CLB) adults are beetles with metallic blue-green wings and a…
Tracey Baute May 17, 2016 2254 Comments Off on Stand Loss Assessments for Ontario’s Neonic RegulationsOnce corn and soybeans emerge, keep an eye out for crop injury. If you experience stand loss from wireworms, grubs, seedcorn maggot, bean leaf beetle (in soybeans only) or corn rootworm (in corn only), then you can choose to have an Inspection of Crop Pest Assessment done this spring. If the stand loss thresholds are reached (see below), then a…
Now is a great time to scout for wireworms and grubs. With the recent warm weather, soil temperatures have reached 10oC, which means that wireworm baits will be most effective right now and grubs will also be feeding close the soil surface. How much time there is to scout for these pests depends on how quickly the soil warms up…
Tracey Baute April 26, 2016 2245 Comments Off on What Growers Can Do to Mitigate Dust Drift at PlantingBefore this brief cold wet weather some planting got started over the last week in some areas. The warmer weather had brought spring on into full bloom including dandelions, coltsfoot and some trees including maples, willows, popular and even fruit trees. With the flowers come the bees to forage, setting up the potential for the interaction of bees and neonicotinoids…
I’m big on “To Do Lists”. Some may even say I am obsessed with them. But they help me get things done. With the 2016 growing season approaching, it is a good time to review what the requirements are for using Class 12 pesticides (neonic treated corn and soybean seeds) in Ontario. Here is a “To Do” list for anyone…
Tracey Baute September 16, 2015 2530 Comments Off on Neonics and What Corn and Soybean Growers Need to Know NowAs of July 1, 2015, new requirements for buying and using neonicotinoid-treated corn and/or soybean seed are being phased in to allow growers to adapt to new requirements. This fall (2015) – to prepare for the 2016 growing season Required for Seed Order To purchase and plant 50% or less of your total grain corn or total soybean crop for a farm operation with a neonicotinoid…
Tracey Baute August 6, 2015 2235 Comments Off on Western Bean Cutworm – Still Scout Corn and Now Dry Beans TooTrap counts are still quite high this week in Ontario which indicates that peak flight hasn’t plateaued yet. So there is likely still lots of egg laying happening. Moths will prefer to lay eggs in later planted corn that is still in pre to early tassel stages or will find dry bean fields nearby. Just because a trap is catching…
Lots of people have been sending in pics of eggs, nymphs or adult stink bugs and asking which stink bug it is. So I thought I’d try to help sort them out for you. There are predatory stink bugs and then there are plant feeding stink bugs. It is important to make sure you can ID the good ones from…
With the exception of the last few hot days, these slightly cooler than norm July temps are ideal for soybean aphid development. They can double their populations in a matter of days when temperatures are moderate. There haven’t been many reports of threshold levels being found in the fields so I am a little worried that not everyone is taking…
A few tweets, text messages and reports from our scouts have indicated that WBC egg masses are being found in corn this week. The next two to three weeks are key for scouting and managing WBC for the bulk of the corn crop. Though the typical hot spots (eg. Bothwell area) are more prone to significant populations, last year taught…
Author: Jen Bruggeman, Research Assistant, University of Guelph Ridgetown Campus Western Bean Cutworm traps have been up in Ontario for approximately 5 weeks, with nil to low catches being reported until now. Just this week we have started to see an increase in moth captures, due to our resident population starting to emerge from the soil and due to the…
First flower open on soybeans means that they have reached the R1 stage. From this stage until the start of R6, where the pods on the top few nodes of the plant are filled with a swollen seed, soybean aphid thresholds kick in. A few fields were colonized earlier this spring but for the most part those populations have remained…
Two pests that are starting to appear in Ontario fields include cereal leaf beetle and alfalfa weevil. Cereal leaf beetle: Both adults and larvae can cause damage by chewing long strips of tissue between the leaf veins, though most of the damage is done by the larvae in June. The larvae look somewhat like slugs or a drop of black…
Some US states to our south have been reporting high numbers of black cutworm moths in their pheromone traps and are starting to see some black cutworm injury in newly emerging corn fields. These moths are carried into Ontario via storm fronts. Once they arrive the adult moths look for weedy patches in fields to lay their eggs on. The…