North Peace Applied Research Association Annual Field Tour - July 31, 2024

Here's a list of items and links mentioned by Jennifer at today's field tour: 

INSECT MONITORING IN FIELD CROPS

• Permission to Access by AAFC Staff (posted Jun 3, 2024). 
• Field bio-sanitation protocol (posted May 1, 2024).

• Annual canola survey of the Peace River region (link here); Agreements: 102; Fields: 1170; Targeted survey sites: 110. 
• Aphids in field crops (Weekly Update; Wk12).
• Bertha armyworm (Weekly Update; Wk12).
• Cereal leaf beetle (Weekly Update; Wk10).
• Cutworms (Weekly Update; Wk05).
• Diamondback moth (Weekly Update; Wk12). 
• Fall field scouting in grasses grown for seed (IPM Blog; 2023Sep13)
• Field heroes (Weekly Update; Wk05).
• Flea beetles (Weekly Update; Wk04).
• Grasshopper monitoring (Weekly Update; Wk12).
• Lygus bug (Weekly Update; Wk12).
• Pea leaf weevil (Weekly Update; Wk05).
• Wheat midge monitoring (Weekly Update; Wk11).
• Weekly Update for Week 12 (view list of posts) by #PPMN.

FIELD GUIDES

• Alberta Forage Manual (2009; Ag-Dex120/20-1; ISBN 0-7732-6082-X; pdf in English). Includes Forage Insects and Natural Enemies of Forage Pest Insects chapters. 
• Arthropods of legume forage crops (2011; ISBN 978-0-9689321-5-5; pdf in English). 
• Cutworm field guide (2017; ISBN 978-0-660-08051-2; pdf in English, pdf en français). 
• Field crop and forage insect pests and natural enemies in western Canada (ISBN 978-1-100-25768-6; pdf in English, pdf en français). 
• Guide to pest wireworms in Canadian prairie field crop production (ISBN 978-0-660-39114-4; pdf in English, pdf en français).

PRAIRIE-WIDE NETWORKS

• Prairie Pest Monitoring Network (homepage); Weekly Update, Insect of the Week, Subscribe, Risk Maps, Insect Monitoring Protocols
• Prairie Weed Monitoring Network (homepage). 
• Prairie Crop Disease Monitoring Network (homepage).

INSECT PEST MONITORING PROGRAM AT AAFC-BEAVERLODGE

• X  @bugs5132  with in-season updates.
• Insect Pest Management Lab Blog updated seasonally. 
• Alberta AgriSystems Living Lab
• Peace Region Living Lab

Field Heroes' PEST and PREDATOR PODCASTS

 The Field Heroes campaign continues to raise awareness of the role of beneficial insects in western Canadian crops. 

Real Agriculture went live with the Pest & Predators podcast series starting in 2020 and Season 4 of the popular series will be out in 2024! Review the various podcasts Jennifer Otani has recorded: 

Season 1, Episode 1: Do you know your field heroes? Jennifer Otani (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada-Beaverlodge) and Shaun Haney (RealAg). Published online May 12, 2020. 

Season 2, Episode 9: Secret agents in the stubble. Jennifer Otani (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada-Beaverlodge) and Shaun Haney (RealAg). Published online May 18, 2021. 

Season 3, Episode 18: Preying in the canola canopy. Jennifer Otani (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada-Beaverlodge) and Shaun Haney (RealAg). Published online June 29, 2022. 

Season 4, Episode 25: 20 years of canola surveying and counting!  Jennifer Otani (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada-Beaverlodge) and Shaun Haney (RealAg). Published online March 18, 2024.

Links from 2020 Peace Agronomy Update

Links from 2020 Peace Agronomy Update, Fairview AB, January 14, 2020.
#PeaceAgronomyUpdate2020

ALBERTA Farmer-led research engagement
Online survey by January 31, 2020
Public engagement session January 17, 2020, 2-4 pm, Grande Prairie Regional College

Alberta Pest Surveillance Network's Annual Risk and Forecast Maps
2020 Grasshopper forecast map
2020 Wheat midge forecast map (excerpt of Peace region map)
2019 Bertha armyworm map
2019 Pea leaf weevil map
2019 Cabbage seedpod weevil map
Contact Shelley.Barkley@gov.ab.ca to register fields AND support to in-field monitoring.

If you have LIVE slugs in your field crops in 2020 and will are willing to ship, email slugs@ualberta.ca

If you want to receive Alberta Agriculture's Ralph Wright's agricultural meteorological updates, email him to subscribe at Ralph.Wright@gov.ab.ca OR the maps eventually get put up at: https://open.alberta.ca/publications/agricultural-moisture-situation-update

Other Useful Resources
Canadian Grain Commission’s Stored Insect Pest Keys
Alberta Pest Monitoring Network's Homepage 
Prairie Pest Monitoring Network's Blog
Field Heroes information
Field Heroes YouTube channel
Twitter   #PPMNblog posted by @bugs5132

Meet our students (2018) - Introducing Rebecca!

Hello! My name is Rebecca Philip and I have been working at AAFC-Beaverlodge since September 2017.  From September to the end of December 2017, I was working in the Pulse Breeding program based out of AAFC-Lacombe where I was responsible for carrying out cross pollination of pea flowers in an effort to develop new varieties of field peas.  I am excited to switch to the Insect Pest Management program and to learn about insect pests and some of the natural enemies found within field crops grown in the Peace River region.

I am currently enrolled in the  third year of the Natural Resource Science program at Thompson Rivers University, which is located in Kamloops BC. I have a strong love for the outdoors and working outside and I am lucky to have a job and a program that reflect this! Although I come from BC, this is not my first time living in Alberta. Most of my childhood was spent just north of Edmonton in the small town of Bon Accord.

So far, the first weeks in the IPM program have been focused on data entry for the 2017 CARP Flea Beetle project but I’ve also been processing wheat midge from samples collected during the growing season. We are retrieving wheat midge larvae from wheat heads threshed using a single-head thresher.  The data will quantify the density of wheat midge occurring in local wheat fields. In the near future, I will work on the Prairie Pest Monitoring Network’s Blog to archive and update information in preparation for the 2018 growing season.

Figure 1. Rebecca pinning and labelling carabid beetles.

Meet our students - Welcome back Kaitlin!

Hi, my name is Kaitlin Freeman and this is my fourth summer returning to work at the Beaverlodge Research Farm! 

I just completed my second year of my Bachelor of Science in Registered Nursing at Grande Prairie Regional College. I am very excited to be involved with the Integrated Pest Management program once again this summer, and I am looking forward to expanding my existing knowledge on some of the common pests we monitor in the Peace River Northern Alberta region such as; Flea beetles, Diamondback Moths, Bertha Armyworm, Wheat Mmidge, and Red Clover Casebearers. 

This week has been all about preparing for the upcoming collecting season and teaching our new students about the different projects that will be taking place in our lab this summer (Figure 1). 

Figure 1.  Kaitlin supervising pheromone trap set up near Beaverlodge AB in 2017.

Meet our students - Introducing Charlotte!

Hello! My name is Charlotte and this will be my first summer working in the IPM lab at the Beaverlodge Research Farm. I’m currently completing my Bachelor of Science degree in Health Studies at the University of Waterloo. Because I’m in the university’s co-op program, I have been alternating between four months of school and four months in a job placement since my second year. I’m mid-way through my B.Sc. now. I’m hoping this summer will allow me to utilize some of the skills I’ve acquired through past work terms and allow plenty of opportunities for me to learn lots of new things. 

Although we have only been at the Farm for a week, there has been lots of new information thrown at us and work to be done. For example, myself and some of the other students set up weekly monitoring sites for flea beetle and diamondback moth traps at two locations on the Beaverlodge Research Farm (Figure 1). At each of our sites, a transect of five sticky cards (each 25m apart) were deployed. Each sticky card is positioned a few centimetres above the soil surface using a small wooden stake pounded into the ground. We also set up two diamondback moth pheromone traps (50m apart) positioned ~1m above soil surface using a wooden stake.  What makes these traps extra special is the pheromone lure hung inside the trap designed to release a species-specific pheromone plume into the air to attract males. From this point on, we will retrieve and deploy need traps on a weekly basis to determine the seasonal activity levels of both flea beetles and diamondback moth. 

I also had the opportunity to go out with one of my fellow coworkers, Amanda, and help her collect soil cores for the wheat midge project. Amanda has worked quite a few summers at the Farm and was able to offer a lot of pointers to a newbie like me. Most importantly, she talked about the importance of wearing Tyvek boot covers over my shoes. This is especially important with the cooperator-growers’ fields as we must protect all fields from plant pathogens in the soil (i.e., to prevent the spread of clubroot). Upon arrival at any grower’s field, we don new boot covers as we emerge from the vehicle.  These same booties are carefully removed as we return to the vehicle to depart.  

Overall, I had a very enjoyable first week in the IPM lab! I have already been exposed to a lot of new information and I’m excited to learn more as the summer progresses. 

Figure 1. Rebecca, Cameron and Charlotte (L to R) setting up diamondback moth pheromone traps near Beaverlodge AB in May 2017.

Meet our students - Introducing Cameron!

Hi! My name is Cameron and I am one of the new IPM students this year at the Beaverlodge Research Farm. I am currently studying Environmental Science at the University of Guelph, majoring in resource management. I am going into my second year in September, but taking a women’s studies course over the summer, just out of personal interest. I started out my university career in the Arts and Science program where you pick two minors - one in the Arts and one in the Sciences. I do have a very strong interest in the Humanities as well as the Sciences but I finally decided I wanted to specialize more in the sciences, and here I am!

This week we set up flea beetle and diamondback moth traps. The flea beetle traps are bright yellow sticky cards twist-tied onto little stake. 5 of them are set up, 25 meters apart, along the edge of a field. The diamondback moth traps are triangular-folded cardboard traps tied to the top of a wooden stake hammered into the ground. Two of these pheromone traps are set up in each field, 50 m apart. When we set up the pheromone traps, we tie a little grey rubber septum containing pheromones, a semio-chemical intra-species attractant for male moths. They follow the pheromone plume released by the rubber septum then the males get trapped on the sticky card positioned inside the triangular trap.  The sticky card is then removed on a weekly basis in order for us to count and record their relative numbers. 

We also helped Shelby with her natural enemies of wheat midge project.  We sieved soil containing overwintered wheat midge cocoons then looked through a dissection microscope to pull out both live and dead larvae and count them. I really enjoy looking through the microscope, I find it very meditative. We also learned a lot about clubroot. I went and did some research on my own to bring back to the other IPM students.  In terms of this cruciferous disease, the main management practices include sanitation of tools and wearing Tyvek booties to prevent its spread. 

All in all, I am very happy with how my first week went, and I look forward to the coming ones. 

Figure 1. Cameron processing overwintered wheat midge cocoons in the IPM lab at Beaverlodge AB in May 2017.

Meet our students - Introducing Rebecca!

Hi everyone! My name is Rebecca and this is my first summer working at the Beaverlodge Research Farm in the Integrated Pest Management Lab. 

I just finished my 4th year at the University of Alberta where I am pursuing a Bachelors of Science degree with a major in Biological Science and a minor in Earth and Atmospheric Science. Growing up in a small farming town nearby called, I have found an interest in agriculture, animals and working outdoors. Having worked with an applied research association before, I enjoy field work very much and am familiar with some of the work we do at the Farm. 

In the first week, we assembled and deployed traps for diamond black moths and flea beetles. The diamond black moth traps consist of a card covered in a sticky substance called tanglefoot and a lure that contains a pheromone designed to attract male moths. Flea beetle traps consist of a yellow sticky card that is set just about the ground level. Within the next few weeks, we will be deploying more traps for a variety of field crop insects.

I look forward to gaining more experience and learning a lot of new things this summer. I am very excited to be working on the Farm and am ready for a busy summer ahead!

Figure 1. Rebecca hunting for overwintered insects near Falher AB in May 2017.

Diamondback moth monitoring

The host plants of the diamondback moth (Figure 1) belong to the family Brassicaceae, which includes canola, mustard, and broccoli. They lay their eggs on these plants, and these hatch to be small miners, which live inside the leaves. Older larvae are yellow-green caterpillars, which eat the leaves, flowers, and other tissues of the plant. The larvae finally pupate in cocoons on these plants and emerge as moths.  Each year, Diamondback moths travel north into Canada using high altitude air masses.  Moths travel from Mexico, southern United States and the Pacific northwest from April and on through the growing season.

Figure 1. Diamondback moth adult, larva and pupa (Wikimedia Commons, Government of Manitoba).  Note the two prolegs at the rear of the larva that form characteristic "spurs".

The IPM team monitors diamondback moths throughout the Peace River region with the goal of determining the timing and magnitude of the moths’ mass migration. To do this, we set up delta traps (Figure 2). These traps are lined with sticky cards and baited with the alluring scent of female pheromones to attract male diamondback moths. We align the traps east-west to funnel the prevailing winds. The traps are generally set out in late April and the sticky cards are collected weekly for 6 weeks or longer, depending on the timing of the moths’ arrival. Later in the season, once the crops have grown, we also count the number of diamondback larvae present on the plants per unit area by doing a beat sample. For more information about the life cycle and monitoring of the diamondback moth, check out our monitoring protocols.  

Figure 2. Delta trap used to capture diamondback moth moths in situ.  The pheromone lure is hung inside the trap and moths are collected on the sticky card inserted on the inner surface of the trap.

Back at the lab, we count the number of moths on each card (Figure 3). Working with the cards can be challenging, as the sticky substance will cover the lab tables, the instruments, and students’ fingers if these items are not protected. We also record the results of the beat sample and amalgamate all the data. The location of the site and the timing of each collection, along with the economic threshold for each crop, provide information about when crops should be sprayed with pesticides.

Figure 3.  Sticky card with diamondback moths marked using a blue dot.  By-catch insects include flies and beetles.

- Laura

2016 Weekly Updates

The Prairie Pest Monitoring Network's Weekly Updates are now available for the growing season.  Access the Blog to read the Posts OR access a downloadable PDF.

Weekly Updates for 2015

The Prairie Pest Monitoring Network's final Weekly Update has been posted to: http://prairiepestmonitoring.blogspot.ca/

Good luck to our growers and thank you to the many people who contributed to monitoring in field crops across the prairies this season!