Soybean aphids have been spotted in a few fields in southern Ontario that haven’t seen soybean aphids in quite a few years. As soybeans begin to enter R1, weekly scouting is advised, focusing first on the earlier planted fields close to or in R1, as well as any that have not had much rain and […] Read more
Tag Archives beneficial insects
Scouting advised for soybean aphids
Bugs to the rescue
Produce growers using insects to fight crop pests
Growers are increasingly under pressure to minimize or even eliminate the use of pesticides in horticulture, so they’re in need of new tools that will protect their crops from both yield loss and cosmetic damage that could make produce unsellable in the marketplace.
How a parasitoid wasp might address fruit fly pest issue
B.C. and Michigan State research shows promising results
Spotted wing drosophila is a diminutive but prolific fruit fly pest with a penchant for fresh and ripening fruit. It lays its egg within soft fruit, causing it to decompose and resulting in an estimated $623 million loss in the B.C. soft and thin-skinned fruit export market. Most fruit fly research is in British Columbia, […] Read more
Controlling insect pests without harming beneficial insect species
Science Notes: Horizontally transferred genes in insect genomes can selectively kill green peach aphids
Killing crop-damaging insects by targeting genes essential to their survival is a promising approach to pest control. Because essential genes are often conserved across multiple insect species, the challenge is finding targets whose silencing kills the pests but not beneficial insects. Led by Georg Jander, a professor at the Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI), a team of […] Read more
Beneficial bugs protect stored grain
Biocontrols prevent bug infestations in processing and grain facilities
Glacier FarmMedia – Intentionally placing bugs in grain and food processing facilities to help manage pests is a tough idea to swallow in Canada, but the practice has been used in Central Europe since the mid-1990s. Vincent Hervet, an entomologist with Ag Canada in Winnipeg, conducted a literature review on the use of biological controls […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
