Uploaded September 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Fall crop scouting provides a roadmap for producers to see which late-season pests overwinter, which insects are beneficial to crops, and how they can use this information to make educated decisions about how to best manage their fields.
In this episode of Canola School, RealAgriculture host Amber Bell catches up with Amanda Jorgensen, Provincial Entomologist for Alberta Agriculture and Irrigation, to discuss the importance of scouting fields before harvest, what insects producers are currently seeing in their fields, where these bugs are going to spend their winter, and how producers can implement certain management practices to alleviate them.
For pests that spend the winter directly in the field, targeted management decisions can help suppress populations. "For areas where we have a lot of Bertha armyworm, doing that fall tillage can help expose those pupae to the winter conditions," says Jorgensen, adding that tillage can also disrupt grasshopper egg pods and root maggot pupae. However, chemical applications in the autumn are strongly discouraged. "We don't recommend spraying in the fall," says Jorgensen. "Overwintering conditions can cause 80-90 percent mortality naturally, so spraying now wastes inputs and harms beneficial insects."
Maintaining landscape features like hedgerows or flowering plants in wet low-lying areas helps foster beneficial predators and parasitoids. Additionally, controlling brassicaceous weeds in the fall removes key overwintering habitat and food sources for Lygus bugs, cabbage seedpod weevils, and flea beetles.
Website: realagriculture.com
#farming #agriculture #insects #canola
Find us on our other social media platforms:
X/Twitter: twitter.com/realagriculture
Instagram: instagram.com/realagriculture
Facebook: facebook.com/realagmedia
Fall crop scouting provides a roadmap for producers to see which late-season pests overwinter, which insects are beneficial to crops, and how they can use this information to make educated decisions about how to best manage their fields.
In this episode of Canola School, RealAgriculture host Amber Bell catches up with Amanda Jorgensen, Provincial Entomologist for Alberta Agriculture and Irrigation, to discuss the importance of scouting fields before harvest, what insects producers are currently seeing in their fields, where these bugs are going to spend their winter, and how producers can implement certain management practices to alleviate them.
For pests that spend the winter directly in the field, targeted management decisions can help suppress populations. "For areas where we have a lot of Bertha armyworm, doing that fall tillage can help expose those pupae to the winter conditions," says Jorgensen, adding that tillage can also disrupt grasshopper egg pods and root maggot pupae. However, chemical applications in the autumn are strongly discouraged. "We don't recommend spraying in the fall," says Jorgensen. "Overwintering conditions can cause 80-90 percent mortality naturally, so spraying now wastes inputs and harms beneficial insects."
Maintaining landscape features like hedgerows or flowering plants in wet low-lying areas helps foster beneficial predators and parasitoids. Additionally, controlling brassicaceous weeds in the fall removes key overwintering habitat and food sources for Lygus bugs, cabbage seedpod weevils, and flea beetles.
Website: realagriculture.com
#farming #agriculture #insects #canola
Find us on our other social media platforms:
X/Twitter: twitter.com/realagriculture
Instagram: instagram.com/realagriculture
Facebook: facebook.com/realagmedia
