MARCH 2019 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC
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Studies continue on forage, corn crop pests Producers warned not to be complacent when it comes to armyworm, corn rootworm
by SEAN HITREC ABBOTSFORD – Two new
threats to BC forage crops were the focus of a BC Ministry of Agriculture talk at the Pacific Agriculture Show in late January. True armyworm and
Western corn rootworm both took large bites out of forage and corn fields in BC two years ago. The ministry has now partially completed studies and is working with farmers to help mitigate damage. It took a year for some
forage fields in the Cowichan Valley to recover from the first-recorded outbreak of Mythimna unipuncta, or true armyworm, in 2017. Farmers who relied on forage to feed their herds had to import feed from off-island and the US. The added costs sparked the retirement of at least one dairy farmer in the area. Wing samples the province
collected by trapping moths suggest true armyworm is coming from California, provincial entomologist Tracy Hueppelsheuser says. However, she’s still waiting for the final report.
weather, so when the temperature drops to around -6° Celsius, the insects will simply freeze solid and die, she says. This also means the moths surf the wind currents to BC from California in search of greener pastures every year.
NASA published last month that 2018 was the fourth- warmest year on record. (The previous three years hold the top three spots.) This means it may only be a matter of time before the pest does overwinter in BC. “They could certainly
survive winter in BC as long as we don't get any cold snaps,” says Hueppelsheuser. “This little cold snap [in early February] will be enough to kill anything that's out there, so it's unlikely that we'll see anything in the spring in 2019.”
Armyworms can destroy the feed value of corn and forage crops. BC MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE PHOTO When the moths do get
here, they can live up to two generations over the summer, but then likely die over the winter.
“We didn't see any suspect
larvae in the spring and based on lab studies and studies with our western population, it doesn't look like it's winter-
hardy at all,” she says. True armyworm doesn’t
overwinter in BC because it doesn’t diapause, or have a dormant stage for cold
Last year, true armyworm moths started showing up in May, but their numbers were far lower than in 2017. After trapping in the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island last year, 63 true armyworm moths were found
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