The Rural Voice, 2004-12, Page 50Advice
Could aphids over -winter here this year?
By Tracey Baute
Field Crop Entomologist
OMAF, Ridgetown
Despite experiencing lower levels
of soybean aphids in most of
southwestern Ontario this summer,
soybean aphids can easily be found
on buckthorn this fall and have
produced what appear to be eggs
along the buds of the buckthorn
plants.
Once the soybeans started to drop
their leaves, the Soybean Aphid
Research Team turned their attention
to buckthorn bushes across the
province to see if the aphids would
find their way to them. And
unfortunately they did. We are now
finding soybean aphid eggs on
buckthorn at various locations
including Harrow (potted buckthorn
site), Ridgetown, St. Thomas,
Niagara area and Guelph. I've even
found aphids and eggs on buckthorn
growing within the city of London,
far from the nearest soybean field.
They sure know how to find their
over -wintering host! Researchers in
eastern Ontario and Quebec also
found aphids on buckthorn but have
not found eggs as of yet. We will of
course be monitoring all of these
sites this spring to see what happens.
Though soybean aphid eggs are
known to over -winter in some of the
U.S. states including Michigan, this
is the first time they have been found
in Ontario. It appears that the
lengthened soybean season,
including the warmer fall weather
and late harvest gave the aphids
ample time to colonize buckthorn and
still produce males back on the
soybean plants. The males found
their way to buckthorn and mated
with the females that were there.
So what does this mean for next
year? Is this a guarantee that soybean
aphids are going to be a problem in
2005?
No, not necessarily. Successful
over -wintering depends on what kind
of winter we experience, as well as
what happens next spring. Cold harsh
winter conditions, fall and spring
predation by ladybugs and other
natural enemies and spring planting
conditions will determine if we have
successful over -wintering and spring
colonization of soybean aphids from
buckthorn to soybeans.
Even if this occurs. what the
summer conditions are like is what
really determines their impact. This
year was a great example of this, as
we found soybean aphids in fields
across the province and Quebec
around the same week in June. But it
was the conditions in eastern Ontario
and Quebec that allowed the aphids
to reach levels that had an economic
effect, unlike the rest of Ontario and
most of the U.S., where aphids were
difficult to find and had little impact
on the crop in 2004.
Finding the eggs here will require
us to focus a bit more attention to
what our regional situation is like
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instead of solely depending on
watching to see what the aphids are
doing in the U.S., waiting for them to
be blown in, though that is still
important. We will be setting up
suction traps next year to monitor
winged aphid activity whether they
are coming in masses from the U.S.
or from local populations. This will
give us a heads -up as to when to find
them in our fields.
Still wondering what buckthorn
looks like? This is the best time of
the year to look for it. In the fall,
buckthorn is one of the last
deciduous bushes to loose its leaves
and their leaves stay almost entirely
green until they drop.
If you are driving by woodlots,
focus your attention to the green
bushes (approximately one to six
metres high) that are growing along
the outside edges. If you walk up to
them and see that they have parallel
veins on the leaves and small
purplish -black, cherry-like berries
dropping off of the branches, it is
buckthorn.
If you'd like more information on
buckthorn. refer to the buckthorn
article I wrote in CropPest, Volume
7, Issue 6, June 13, 2002 available on
the OMAF website.0
EFAO wants
break for small
flock producers
Continued from page 44
"Many small farmers feel they
have fewer and fewer options on
what livestock and crops they can
raise and market and at the same
time they feel their customers are
losing the right to make their own
choices about who produces their
food and how it is grown", said
Huron County farmer, Nancy Hislop.
The EFAO board has sent a letter
to the CFO and the Minister of
Agriculture outlining their request
and has put a committee in place to
continue work on this issue.0