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COUNTRY LIFE IN BC • JUNE 2017 Controlling hop-loving pests a necessary evil by RONDA PAYNE


ABBOTSFORD – There’s been plenty of talk about hops in BC lately: how to start growing, where to sell crops and what to turn hops into. But what’s been lacking is a solid understanding of the pests that can impact yields. Paul Abram is a research scientist involved in the biological control of insect pests with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and he spoke about hops pest management at the Pacific Agriculture Show in Abbotsford earlier this year. “It’s not possible or even


feasible to completely eliminate a pest from a hops field,” Abram explained as he started his presentation. Yet, he noted, biological control plays a large part in hops. Using the principles of


Integrated Pest Management (IPM), Abram and others develop monitoring systems to determine timing for various control actions. Like with many other crops, different pests and their threshold levels can trigger


the need for specific tools, whether it’s beneficial insects, insecticides or other treatments.


Among the pests Abram discussed, aphids hit the top of the charts. “There is so much liquid in their body,” he said. “You have to prevent build up early.” Honeydew secretions from aphids cause problems for hop cones. Different kinds of aphids will infest hops and the primary type –


unsurprisingly – is the hops aphid though, despite the name, these hungry insects only move onto hops when their preferred diet of cherry or plum trees is unavailable or over-crowded.


Abram marks 10 aphids per leaf in pre-flowering hops as the threshold. One of the best known


predator/insect relationships is that of ladybird beetles and aphids. “They consume tons and tons of aphids,” Abram said. “The rule of thumb is a ladybird per hops plant. It may help keep [aphid levels] at reasonable levels.”


These pretty yet mighty pest eaters are sensitive to insecticides so check all labels before spraying if using ladybirds as part of the IPM program.


Another pest Abram identified was the two- spotted spider mite. These insects are found on the underside of leaves and cause bronzing as well as bitterness in hop cones. “Their presence is caused a


lot by management practices,” he noted. This is due to the spider


mite’s liking for higher levels of nitrogen. The threshold for action on spider mites is one to two mites from mid-June to early July. Perhaps the best insect for


controlling spider mites is the predatory mite. “These are the wolves of the mite world,” Abram said. While spider mites may seem hungry, the predatory mites dwarf their eating abilities, ingesting up to 10 spider mites in a single day. Abram suggested bringing predatory mites into the field at the threshold of 10 aphids per leaf. The weakness of the


predatory mites is their susceptibility to broad


spectrum insecticides and sulphur. They are very sensitive. Ladybird beetles are also


fond of munching on both adult mites and larvae. The hop looper and the


bertha army worm are two types of caterpillars hop growers need to be on the lookout for. “With these, the cones themselves are the biggest concern,” Abram said. “There is no threshold estimate set for action. The tolerance level is really low.”


Chicken/egg scenario A nuisance to hops roots


and root crowns is the California prionus beetle and garden symphylan or root weevil. These pests create a chicken/egg scenario where their damage can mimic certain pathogen issues but they also increase hops’ susceptibility to pathogens. Predatory bugs which may


have some success with these and other hop loving pests include pirate bugs, big-eyed bugs and assassin bugs. However, with these helpful creatures, the susceptibility to broad spectrum insecticides is among the highest.


HOP research centre in works TRACTORS


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He encouraged growers to use the resources on the [Farmwest.com] website to help them determine how much water they need to apply on any given day and to invest in soil moisture meters to refine that information. “A lot of it is guesswork,” he admitted. The resurgent interest in hops has also attracted the attention of researchers. Plant biologist Mathias Scheutz recently moved from


UBC to Kwantlen Polytechnic University and is working with Dr. Deborah Henderson of Kwantlen’s Institute for Sustainable Horticulture to establish a new hops research centre at KPU’s Langley campus.


One of his goals is to


develop “our own varieties,” noting new varieties are highly sought-after by craft brewers. To that end, Schuetz has


already amassed a repository of about 130 wild and


Parasitic wasps are another


helper. They lay eggs in aphids and hop loopers. This sounds gruesomely effective yet, unfortunately, they are not as good at reducing aphid populations as other predators. “In a lot of cases, [the parasitic wasps] can prevent them from building up,” Abram said of aphid control. “You can get suppression.” But obviously for IPM to


work, there must be both pest and predator in the field. This means growers must tolerate a certain amount of damage to their crops as predatory insects will only stick around while there is food to eat and their prey is bound to take a bite or two out of the hops yields before meeting their demise. Abram pointed to three


ways to get these predators to the field: release of commercially-raised insects; chemical attractants; and attractant cover-crops and managed vegetation between rows. Of the chemical


attractants, Abram said, “They can attract natural enemies to hop yards,” but added that this option many not yet be economically viable.


nfrom page 19


domesticated varieties in Chilliwack and is starting to do his own crosses. While the wild varieties


“are very resistant to apple mosaic virus and other diseases,” they are not much good for brewing. He therefore hopes some of his crosses will combine the best of both worlds. Growers should not hold their breaths, however, as it can take a decade or longer to develop and prove a new variety.


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