2019 IPM Program Staff

We are well into the 2019 growing season and we are pleased to have three summer students (Matthew, Megan and Cassie) working in the lab alongside our two technicians (Shelby and Amanda.  Welcome to the team!

Meet our technician (2019) - Amanda Jorgensen

Hello there! I’m Amanda Jorgensen and I’ve been working in the IPM Program for 6 years!  I was a student in the IPM lab here at Beaverlodge (first a co-op student, then doing my M.Sc.) and have introduced myself as a student in 2016 and 2017. Now, I completed my Master’s degree from the University of Alberta and have been hired on indeterminately as a research technician at the Beaverlodge Research Farm. I am very excited to expand my responsibilities and take on more of the day-to-day lab management tasks that I took for granted as a student.

Figure 1. Amanda (left) with Shelby Dufton (right) in a wheat field at the edge of the Peace River Valley.

As a technician, I am involved in a lot more than I was as a student. While I am still been working to wrap up some wheat midge work, I will work more with insect pests and beneficial organisms in perennial grass and legume seed crops! I am currently contacting growers in the region seeking producer-cooperators who kindly allow us access to their fields so we can collect insects and assess insect-related damage in crops including creeping red fescue, smooth and meadow brome, red and alsike clover, plus alfalfa. In the past few years I focused on annual crops so I’m excited to expand my horizons!

Thanks for reading!
Amanda.jorgensen@canada.ca

Figure 2. Amanda collecting soil samples in a typical Northern Alberta spring.

Meet our technician (2019) - Shelby Dufton

Hi!  My name is Shelby Dufton and you may have seen some of my posts on the blog before (1, 2, 3).  I have worked in a few different capacities with the Beaverlodge Research Farm since 2014. I started out as a co-op student from the University of British Columbia in my first couple of years at the farm and quickly found my passion for entomological research. Following this, I started a M.Sc. degree through the University of Lethbridge. For my Master’s thesis project, I studied the effects of natural enemies of the wheat midge. I recently defended my thesis in April – and I’m excited to say I passed!

Figure 1.  Shelby (right) and Amanda Jorgensen (left) scouting overnight for
wheat midge in a field near Fort Vermilion AB.

In October of 2018, I was hired on as a full-time research technician with the IPM program. Making the change from Master’s student to technician involves new opportunities for me to learn and grow with the program. Things are ramping up as the field season kicks off and I’m happy to be working outside again.

Currently, I am in the process of scouting for and setting up new fields for our insect monitoring that is part of the Prairie Pest Monitoring Network (For more information check out the PPMN blog). Looking forward to seeing you out in the field this summer!

shelby.dufton@canada.ca

Figure 2.  Shelby holding a Polyphemus moth, Antheraea polyphemus, that she reared in 2018.

Meet our students (2019) - Introducing Matthew!

Hi! My name is Matthew Uniat.

Last summer I worked for AAFC-Lacombe with the Pulse Pathology program. Some of the major tasked I preformed were disease ratings for aphanomyces and fusarium, as well as applying a variety of spray treatments to field plots. This summer, I started working at the Beaverlodge Research Farm in the Integrated Pest Management program. I’m excited to expand my knowledge and look forward to learn about arthropods and their role within the Canadian prairie ecosystem. This job allows a continuation to improving and progressing my experience in doing laboratory/ field-based research.

This fall I will continue my third year of undergraduate studies at Concordia University of Edmonton, majoring in Cellular and Molecular Biology. I moved to the Prairie West region from Edmonton Alberta and am eager to live here for the summer. Throughout my life I’ve spent a great deal of time traveling around the rural areas of western North America; whether it be camping, fishing, or searching for rocks. Over this period, I’ve gained a great deal of respect for the outdoors.

So far, I have been assisting Shelby Dufton and Amanda Jorgensen, the program’s technicians. I’ve started to process sweep-net samples collected in 2018, helped set out diamondback moth pheromone traps, flea beetle sticky traps, and pitfall traps. Everyone I have worked with so far has been a great teacher and I’m excited to spend the next 4 months working with the Insect Pest Management crew.

Meet our students (2019) - Introducing Megan!

Hi! My name is Megan Yu and this is my first time working at the Beaverlodge Research Farm.

I am on my first Co-op work term, coming from the University of British Columbia, where I just finished my third year in Environmental Sciences (focusing on Ecology and Conservation). As this summer holds a lot of firsts for me, I am thrilled to learn about agriculture in the Peace River Region, as well as the insects that are both beneficial and detrimental in the agroecosystem.

Over the past couple of weeks, I have been processing samples from sweep-net collections collected last year. This process involves dumping out contents of the sample onto a tray, retrieving the insect specimens using a paint brush, then sorting the insects into small petri dishes by size and shape. It can be quite difficult, as some insects such as thrips are very tiny. There are also many insects hiding within the plants such as the petals of the flower, so extra caution must be taken when processing these samples.

The two student research technicians I am working for, Amanda and Shelby, are extremely passionate about their work. With warmer and sunnier weather, I am looking forward to go out in the field to do more insect monitoring with our research technicians while exploring the prairies of Alberta. 

Meet our students (2019) - Introducing Cassie!

Hi, my name is Cassie Gerow!

This is my first year working at the Beaverlodge Research Farm. I am looking forward to working in the Insect Pest Management program and learning more about the impact insects have on the farming industry.

So far, I have had the opportunity to learn about some of the insects we will be studying over the summer as well as how samples are collected. I have also assisted my supervisor, Jennifer Otani, in updating the scouting charts on the Prairie Pest Management blog page. These charts are linked to the updated field guide and show growers when these insects are most active as well as their growth stages and what plants they prefer. I will also have the opportunity to process field sweeps from 2019 as well as setting up flea beetle, pit-fall, and diamondback moth traps.

Growing up in the area, I have had lots of exposure to the farming industry. Although my family never were large producers, many of my friends growing up lived and worked on large farms. This experience has given me a great appreciation for the work and research being done at the Beaverlodge Research Farm to help these farmers be more successful.

I have just completed my first year of prerequisites at the Grande Prairie Regional College for Vet school. The experience I will gain over the summer will help me in the future to have a better understanding for what the farmers have to deal with for both their livestock, and the crops they produce to maintain healthy animals.

Meet our students (2019) - Introducing Stephanie!

Hi! My name is Stephanie Thompson and I recently started working with the Beaverlodge Research Farm in the Integrated Pest Management program. I am from Winnipeg, Manitoba, and in my third year of undergraduate studies at the University of Manitoba majoring in Biological Sciences. My goals for this work term are to learn more about the program and gain skills and experience doing laboratory-based research. I also hope to become more knowledgeable regarding the various types of arthropods that are both pests and beneficials in the agricultural ecosystem on the Canadian prairies.

So far, I have been assisting a M.Sc. student, Shelby Dufton, with processing pitfall samples collected through the summer of 2018. Everyone I have worked with thus far has been great and I look forward to spending the next 4 months learning with and from them.

This Week at the Farm (June 12, 2015)

June is cutworm month and cutworm scouting is crucial at this time of the year.

Cutworms include several species of noctuids that feed on a broad range of host plants but they are not worms!  Cutworms are the larval stage of several species of economically important noctuids that can cause damage in prairie-grown crops including canola, mustard, wheat barley, triticale, peas, alfalfa, clover, timothy and several fescue species.  Some cutworm species prefer broadleaf to grass- or cereal-type host plants but some will consume whatever plant is available.

Cutworms overwinter as eggs and larvae so damage will occur in field crops from April until August, depending on the species.

Larvae feed by shredding or clipping leaves or stems of growing plants so seedlings can be highly susceptible.  Cutworm damage is characterized by missing seed rows or bare batches where plants have been consumed beneath the soil surface.  Wilted, drying or brown vegetation can indicate larval feeding occurring below the soil surface or within the crown of a plant.

This cutworm larva was found curled  up in the soil near the crown of a timothy plant near Falher, AB

One of the four objectives of the CARP Cutworm project is to document the species diversity and distribution of cutworms causing damage in our commercial fields.  For our lab, this includes collecting live larvae and rearing them.

These cutworms were collected in canola in a field near Peoria, AB

Cutworm larvae are hand-collected by IPM staff or by producers.  Once they arrive at our laboratory, each specimen is assigned an ID number in order to track their development.

Rearing then involves measuring, feeding, and changing each larva every 2-3 days.  Each larva is housed inside a plastic container (1oz) prepared with filter paper to regulate moisture in the container.  Every 2-3 days, each larva is provided with a prepared media containing antibiotics and nutrients specific to their needs.

This GIF shows a cutworm collected from wheat near Falher, AB feeding on a piece of media.

Each larva is photographed and measured as they develop.  This generates an image library that we will use to develop a tech-transfer document intended to help identify species of cutworm at different growth stages.

More information on the CARP Cutworm Project can be found here

More information on cutworm monitoring can be found here

Albertans can use the 2015 cutworm reporting tool to help us identify cutworm infestations which updates a live map.

-Shelby

This Week at the Farm, (May 22, 2015)

Now is the time when flea beetle monitoring is very important to canola producers!  

Flea beetles are important to canola production because they are an economic pest typically emerging from overwintering in the spring which begins to feed on the cotyledons of the canola seedling. Their feeding activity results in characteristic shot-hole damage.  More recently, striped flea beetles have been observed to girdle seedlings which immediately kills the plant.

Flea beetles reproduce in the spring and lay eggs near the stem of cruciferous plants.  Larvae will feed upon the canola root system but it is the adult or beetle which causes economic damage so in-field monitoring and the application of an action threshold of >25% cotyledon leaf area consumed is critical.

We monitor flea beetles to ascertain when they move into canola fields, to obtain a general estimate of the population densities active in specific fields, and to examine proportions of striped, crucifer, and hops flea beetles along with the lesser-known species that can also occur in our fields.  Flea beetles are approximately 2-3 mm long and are usually black, brown, metallic blue or purple and may have yellow stripes on their elytra (i.e., hardened forewings). 

Since 2001, our lab has monitored the density and species diversity of flea beetles found in commercial canola fields.  Below are photos depicting how we collect flea beetles using yellow sticky trap cards, and what they look like when we process the trap cards by examining them under a stereomicroscope.

Flea beetle trap out in the field ready to be collected. The black spots on the card are flea beetles (each 2-3mm long).

One flea beetle (Phyllotreta Striolata) stuck to the trap viewed using our stereomicroscope.

Two flea beetles (Crepidodera spp.) stuck to the trap viewed using our stereomicroscope.

For more information on flea beetles you can follow this link to our  flea beetle protocol .

-Kaitlin

This Week at the Farm (May 14, 2015)

The IPM crew has been hard at work this week sorting through our sweep samples from 2014.  A total of 878 samples were collected in 2014 as part of our field research.  The processing and identification of arthropods within these samples often requires 2-6 hrs by trained Staff members.

IPM technician, Holly (left) and COOP Student, Amanda (right), are sorting through red clover sweep-net samples collected near Falher, AB in July 2014.  These samples provide an indication of species diversity and density within the region and allow us to monitor pest populations.

Each sample is sorted using paintbrushes into petri dishes by type of insect.  Of particular interest in red clover sweep samples like these are red clover casebearers, lygus, and various types of weevils.  We are also on the lookout for natural enemies such as parasitoids and predators.

-Shelby Dufton