(Alice McFarlane/farmnewsNOW Staff)

By Alice McFarlane

Canola Pests

Canola producers watching for flea beetles

May 25, 2020 | 12:04 PM

Canola is beginning to emerge which means growers will be scouting for pests.

Canola Council of Canada agronomy specialist Keith Gabbert said flea beetles top the list of insect concerns for canola.

“The reason they rank that high is someone in some region in Western Canada always has a significant problem with flea beetles each spring and we can’t predict it,” Gabbert said. “Until we can predict it or until we have tools to easily manage it, you just need to get out and scout and continue to worry about this particular insect.”

As flea beetles chew the new plant, they create shot holes. Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture insect specialist James Tansey said the magic number is 25 per cent.

“That’s the most sensitive stage of the plant to this type of feeding and flea beetles are present and still feeding it’s a numbers game,” Tansey said. “Once you get to 50 per cent, which can occur pretty quickly, is when you’re going to see an economic hit.”

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Gabbert said a good plant stand is very important.

“The real goal is to have enough of a buffet set out so a few bites isn’t going to hurt the canola field,” he said.

When environmental conditions are warm and dry flea beetles will be very vigorous in their feeding. The other problem is the plant stand isn’t going to establish as quickly and will have difficulty taking up the seed treatments when the plant isn’t actively growing.

There is still a concern when the weather is cool, wet and windy.

“Flea beetles will retreat to the plant stem. Some stem damage shouldn’t hurt the plant too much but often you’ll see the seedlings completely cut off,” Tansey said.

Flea beetles can still be found in the middle of June, but by that time most canola plants have advanced enough to develop a better tolerance to the insect.

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alice.mcfarlane@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @AliceMcF