Little red bug may pre-date Sask. homestead settlers
Those little red bugs that kept popping up in oilseed fields last year are still a mystery. Saskatchewan Agriculture oilseed specialist Matthew Bernard says a report and a name for the bug is coming from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. Bernard told an oilseed growers meeting in Moose Jaw that his research indicates the bug may have been around for 100 years. A member of the lygaeidae family identified in 1918, Bernard said he found it was ironically named for Saskatchewan with the name peritrechul saskatchewansis. Identity was confused with the Chinch bug then with the two-spotted turnip beetle. The bug turns a grayish colour when mature. There is no determination of damage to canola and flax by the bug, but it does not destroy parts of the plant like many insects do. This bug bites into the plant and sucks out nutrients.
Nor is there any explanation why levels of the bug were so high last year.
Bernard said the annual disease survey of 283 farms indicated generally low levels of diseases with variation from moisture and wind conditions.
Blackleg was a little more prevalent. A new disease, verticillium stripe was found in three per cent of fields.
The pest survey found unexpectedly high numbers of diamondback moths and unexpectedly high numbers of cutworms.
Central and northern pockets of Bertha army worm damage were also unexpected as were high flea beetle numbers. The cabbage pod seed weevil continues to migrate eastward.
And a new midge similar to the Swede midge has been discovered. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada is naming and researching this insect.