MOUNTAIN VIEW COUNTY - The county's agricultural service board (ASB) has received and reviewed the results of the 2021 insect pest monitoring survey conducted in the municipality.
While no areas of particular concern were identified, there is a recommendation that monitoring continue in 2022, including for cutworm.
“Each year the Alberta Insect Monitoring Network sends out teams of surveyors to count, sweep net and soil sample to gather information for insect survey and population maps,” administration said in a briefing note to the board.
“This work helps the network to understand insect populations and range expansion of the targeted insects so that industry can understand the risk and potential damage.”
Information is gathered from pheromone traps, field insect collections and counts or damage assessment to create forecast maps and make control recommendations, members heard.
“The data from the surveys is used for more than just creating forecast maps; it can also be used to direct inspect pest research or researchers can use the collection of samples in their studies.”
The 2021 survey in Mountain View County looked for a number of pests, including Bertha armyworm, cabbage seedpod weevil, diamondback moth, pea leaf weevil, and wheat midge.
“There are five Bertha armyworm sites in the country. None of the locations were above the first warning level of 300 moths and all of the traps caught low numbers of moths. Trapping will continue to be important to watch for possible outbreak in the 2022 growing season.”
Wheat midge is not a concern based on the six samples conducted, members heard.
“There were a couple of midge cocoons in one of the fields. This is not a concern, but producers and agronomists should still plan to monitor fields in 2022 while the wheat flowers as there may be individual fields that have higher numbers.
“One thing we need to keep an eye one is the cutworm situation. With the long fall and crop regrowth, cutworm moths had the opportunity to lay a lot of eggs. Fields with bare spots should be checked for cutworm next (2022) spring.”
Pea leaf weevil damage was low at the sites surveyed.
“The use of insecticide seed treatment will depend on the individual producer and their approach to risk management. Generally it would not be recommended to use insecticide seed treatment in your area until stronger evidence of a rebound in the population of pea leaf weevil is observed.”
There were two diamondback moth traps set up in Mountain View County in 2021.
“There were no moths caught and very few larvae showed up in our early flower canola sweeps.”
Board members accepted the survey report as information.
