The Province of Manitoba released its Summary of Insects on Crops in Manitoba, and the Northwest region had some reports of high levels of Wheat Midge this year.
John Gavloski, the Manitoba Agriculture Entomologist says grasshoppers were also an issue this year, with a few dry summers in a row causing the numbers to be high. He says thanks to the wet start to this summer, next year could look a bit different.
"Late in the season I did go and see some fields with very heavy levels of, basically dead grasshoppers clinging to the top of the plants. It's a disease called summit disease. We see more of that in wetter, damper years, so I'm hoping that might have some impact on next year's population, we'll have to just wait and see."
Gavloski says that the province also saw a high level of Aphids this year.
This is one, again, where the weather was a factor. Once any of the small grains; wheat, oats, barley; hit the soft dough stage, they're considered to be, not susceptible to aphids anymore. The problem was this year a lot of the cereal crops remained susceptible well into August. Often by August, we're not worried about aphids, and in late July to about mid-August, there were quite a few fields that had economic populations of aphids."
Gavloski's full Summary of Insects on Crops can be found here.
