This Week at the Farm - Good luck to all our IPM Students! (August 31, 2016)

This week the IPM Program bid farewell to all our summer students.  Wheat and canola still ripens in the field but our students are heading back to complete their degrees!  

We wish our students good luck with their Fall studies and thank them again for their many contributions!

2016 IPM Program's Staff included (L to R) Amanda, Shelby, Jadin, Kaitlin, Celine, Emily, Hannah and Laura.

This Week At the Farm - Red Clover Casebearer Monitoring

RCCB Post

By Laura

The red clover casebearer (Fig. 1) is a small, metallic green moth belonging to the Family Coleophoridae.  The larval stage of the red clover casebearer (Coleophora deauratella) feeds on the contents of clover florettes and eventually the developing seed.  Three species of Coleophora have established in Canada; C. deauratella utilizes red and alsike clover, C. mayrella utilizes red and alsike clover, and C. trifolii utilizes sweet clover. All three species create cases from the floral or seed pod structures of the host plant they utilize.  The larval stage constructs the “case” from its host plant which is worn and carried much like a snail in its shell, hence the common name of “casebearer”.  In the fall, the red clover casebearer moves from floral structures it feeds upon to the ground, carrying its case.  When conditions prompt overwintering, the red clover casebearer retreats within its case and seals the opening with silk.  In the spring, the red clover casebearer can emerge and move in order to find suitable spring conditions.  The larva then pupates within its case and is observed to begin to fly by mid-June in the Peace River region, typically flying over a 6-8 week period.  The metallic, green micro-leps seek their host plant, feeding upon nectar and they lay their eggs on the host plant.  

Figure 1. Red clover casebearer (Coleophora deauratella) larva and adult. The larva creates a case which it wears until it becomes an adult. Image sources: http://www.ukmoths.org.uk/species/coleophora-deauratella/

The IPM lab monitors red clover casebearers throughout the Peace Region. Pheromone traps and sweep-net collections help us monitor the moth flight period, the presence of mature larvae and densities in commercial fields of clovers.  The pheromone traps consist of a commercially available green unitrap, a pheromone lure (Otani, Mori, Evenden) as bait for the males and enclose a Vapona strip to kill and retain the specimens for later identification and counting (Fig. 2).  

Figure 2. Green unitraps mounted singly on posts at the edge of a field are used for pheromone trap monitoring of male clover casebearer moths.

In the span of one week some traps can catch over 1000 casebearers! The casebearers are retrieved then later counted by summer students (Fig. 3) who wear gloves and dust masks to protect against the insecticidal vapona strip and inhalation of the tiny scales of the moths which coat the inside of the traps like dust.

Figure 3. Summer students count and record the number of casebearers collected from each pheromone trap. This trap had 1793 casebearer moths.

For more information on red clover casebearers in the Peace River region, visit http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/prm4587

This Week in the Lab - Prairie Pest Monitoring

Throughout this summer, the IPM lab at the Beaverlodge Research Farm performs weekly monitoring to support the Prairie Pest Monitoring Network (PPMN).  On a weekly basis, Staff perform outings to collect and deploy insect traps at canola fields in the area to help obtain data to represent the region. Target insects include flea beetles, diamondback moths, swede midge, red clover casebearers, bertha armyworm, wheat midge, grasshoppers, and lygus bugs (protocols and descriptions for each insect pest can be accessed at http://insectpestmanagement.blogspot.ca/p/blog-page.html).

These insects, by way of their feeding on leaves, buds, flowers, stems, and seeds cause economic levels of damage either by reducing quality or yield when outbreak populations are not detected or managed at the proper time. Thus, the weekly PPMN outings were necessary to monitor and assess arthropod species and densities throughout the growing season at various fields in the Peace River region. Monitoring species diversity and densities helps us understand the biology of these organisms and provides insight into interactions between the host plants they affect and even some of the natural enemies that help regulate their densities in field crop situations.  

In canola, sticky card and pheromone traps were deployed mid-May at commercial fields of canola just after they were seeded.  Monitoring continued weekly until traps were retrieved early in August as the seeds within canola pods were beginning to change colour.  On August 2nd, all of the traps at the two sites situated in the BC-side of the Peace River region were taken down.  On August 9th, all the traps at the seven sites in the Alberta-side of the Peace River region were taken down. The last picture shown below is from Wilson’s canola field (site id: 2016-005) on August 9th, 2016, when the mean canola growth rating stage was a 5.2 (Harper and Berkenkamp 1975).

Figure 1. Development of the canola at Site ID#2016-005 from May to August of 2016 (Upper L to Lower R) from seeding, cotyledon, rosette, flowering, and pod stages. Photo credits: Celine, Jadin, Emily and Kaitlin.

The past three months in the IPM lab have represented a roller coaster of experiences.  As the final weeks zoom by, I’d like to thank everyone at BRF for being so amazing, helpful, and for being a part of this journey. Here’s to mosquito bites and canola - Cheers everyone and wishing you all the best! :)

- Celine

2016 Peace Canola Survey - Summary is available now!

The 2016 Annual Peace Canola Survey was completed by Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada staff based at Beaverlodge and Saskatoon.

Since 2003, the annual survey has been performed with the main objectives of (i) collecting insect pest data throughout the region and (ii) to detect the introduction of the cabbage seedpod weevil into the Peace River region.  In 2016, a total of 156 commercial fields of Brassica napus (e.g., each field ≥80 acres in size) were surveyed and no B. rapa was encountered.

Fields were surveyed by sweep-net using 50 - 180° sweeps on the following dates in these areas:
• July 5 near Whitelaw, Berwyn, Grimshaw, Dixonville, Manning, Hotchkiss, Hawk Hills, Notikewin, Blue Hills, Buffalo Head, La Crete.
• July 6 near Fort Vermilion, Blumenort, Valhalla, La Glace, Westmark, Woking, Spirit River, Blueberry Mountain, Silver Valley, Bonanza, Bay Tree, Beaverlodge, Halcourt, Wembley, Grande Prairie, Clairmont, Sexsmith, Teepee Creek, Bezanson, Dimsdale, Huallen, Fairview, Vanrena, Hines, Creek, Worsley, Eureka River,
• July 7 near Rycroft, Webster, Hythe, Wanham, Girouxville, Watino, Eaglesham, Belloy, Dawson Creek, Rolla, Dow River, Clayhurst, Cecil Lake, Fort St. John, Farmington, Valleyview, Guy, Falher, Reno, Nampa, Peace River, Marie-Reine, McLennan, Whitemud Creek.

Sweep-net samples were frozen then processed to generate data for a total of 21,278 arthropods which were identified and categorized into 38 taxa. The 2016 summary includes 15 economically important pests of canola reported from 156 surveyed canola fields plus data related to rotational practises in the Peace River region.

The 2016 summary is available as a downloadable PDF file.

THANK YOU to the following hard working AAFC staff who surveyed†, processed‡, and mapped∞ this data: Jadin Chahade1†‡, Kaitlin Freeman1†‡, Holly Spence1†‡, Hannah Avenant1†‡, Laura Stewart1†‡, Celine Coschizza1†‡, Emily Lemke1†‡, Owen Olfert2†∞, Taylor Kaye2†∞, Shelby Dufton1‡, and Amanda Jorgensen1‡.


Finally, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, Thank you to our canola producers for allowing us to sample in their fields!