Pest Management Update - June 2024
Insect pest update
Check out the latest weekly update from the Prairie Pest Monitoring Network (PPMN).
Cutworms
If you find fields that are “slow” to emerge, are missing rows, include wilting or yellowing plants, have bare patches, or appear highly attractive to birds – these are areas warranting a closer look. Cutworm scouting spans April to late June across the Canadian prairies!
If you find cutworms, please consider using the Alberta Insect Pest Monitoring Network’s “2024 Cutworm Reporting Tool” then?view the live 2024 cutworm map?updated daily. Review the?live map?to see where cutworms are appearing then prioritize in-field scouting accordingly.
Grasshoppers
Compared to 2023, this spring’s current weather is cooler and wetter across parts of the prairie region. Those conditions typically slow grasshopper egg development. However, grasshopper risk for the growing season remains quite high, due to high grasshopper population in 2023 and an open fall that left ample time for grasshopper egg laying.
First instar grasshoppers have been found near Youngstown and Foremost, AB on May 15th. Keep monitoring grasshoppers and use the preliminary thresholds as a reference.
Disease forecast update
Cereal rust risk report for is available for the 2024 season. Made by the scientists in Prairie Crop Disease Monitoring Network (PCDMN), the report tracks the wind trajectories coming from the sources of rust spores. Stripe rust has been observed in Kansas, Nebraska, and a few southern states. Most recently, stripe rust was confirmed in Michigan and southern Ontario. Find the risk of rusts in Canadian Prairies, developed by the PCDMN pathologists using wind trajectory.
See the Cereal Rust Risk Report.
For more information, subscribe to Prairie Crop Disease Monitoring Network.
Check out the new Prairie Weed Monitoring site
If you find the Prairie Pest Monitoring Network (PPMN) and their weekly insect update helpful, the site has a new peer now. Just launched, the Prairie Weed Monitoring Network (PWMN) is formed by a network of weed scientists and specialists committed to generating new knowledge on troublesome weeds across the Canadian Prairies. On the website, you can find great visualized resources, such as herbicide resistance maps and herbicide resistant weeds by herbicide groups.
