Originally published on the ONgreenhousevegetables blog on by Cara McCreary
They may be pretty, but they aren’t our friends. Spotted lanternfly (SLF) is an invasive sap-feeding planthopper with potential to harm agriculture and forestry in Ontario.
But I only grow greenhouse fruits and vegetables, so why does it matter to me, you ask? Read on to learn more about why this pest matters to everyone.
Continue reading ““COMMUNITY” PEST ALERT: Spotted Lanternfly”This is a guest post by Avery Johnson (former OMAFA summer student and current M.Sc. student studying Thrips parvispinus) and S. Jandricic.
Having difficulty identifying thrips on sticky cards and need clear photos to send to your consultant or extension agent? Don’t want to invest in a microscope? Well, you’re in luck, because we’ve done the legwork to find some good alternatives to get high quality photos.
Continue reading “High Quality Photos for Thrips Identification: Rating Phone Attachments.”
Lewis mite is one of those pests that seems to go in cycles – some years we don’t see it at all, and some years I get reports as early as August.
This year there seems to be scattered reports. Given that Lewis mite populations can ramp up in a warm fall and rear their ugly heads in October, it seemed like a good time for an update on what’s working, and what’s not.
Poinsettia are being potted up and pest issues are already popping up! Read on to see what pests growers in Ontario are seeing, and what to do about them.
Continue reading “Poinsettia Pests 2024: Whitefly, Mealybugs and Other Pests”
Hopefully, by now, many of you are familiar with Ontario’s Crop Protection Hub (fondly referred to as “Crop Hub”), a user-friendly tool to look up pesticides and their efficacy against floriculture insects and diseases in the Greenhouse Floriculture module.
Earlier this growing season, new features were released on Crop Hub.
Keep reading to see how these new features is to make it easier for users to view, compare and print crop protection information.
Continue reading “Ontario’s Crop Protection Hub Highlights: New Features”
Greenhouse IPM practitioners have to produce high quality plants and produce with a more limited chemical arsenal. We also have to deal with several key pests that are known to readily develop resistance to multiple chemical classes, including thrips, whitefly and leafminers. So how do we avoid an uphill run on the resistance treadmill?
Hannah Fraser, Horticulture Entomologist with OMAFA, shares her decades of experience battling resistance issues in fruit crop pests with us in this next webinar.
Continue reading “Upcoming GrowON Webinar: Managing Pesticide Resistance in Greenhouses”
In this week’s “how-to” video, we’ll continue exploring how to assess the quality of the biocontrol agents you receive.
This video focuses on a staple of thrips control – predatory mite sachets. These can be a bit trickier to assess than loose product, but it’s important to use the right technique to avoid underestimating the quality of sachets (something even I’ve been guilty of).
Keep reading to find the link to the video and additional resources.
Continue reading ““How-to” Video of the Week: Checking the Quality of Predatory Mite Sachets”
Poinsettia (and whitefly) season is almost upon us! So we thought it was fitting that this week’s “how-to” video focuses on on-farm quality control tests of parasitic wasps.
We’ve also got a few videos on how to scout your poinsettia crop for whitefly and implementing a whitefly biocontrol program. Although these are older videos, they still have lots of relevant info, especially for those newer to whitefly biocontrol programs.
Keep reading for the videos and links to further readings.
Continue reading ““How-to” Video of the Week: Checking the Quality of Parasitic Wasps”By Sarah Jandricic (OMAFA) and Judy Colley (Plant Products)
With the arrival of mandevilla, dipladenia and hibiscus cuttings, now is the time to start planning your management program for Thrips parvispinus. Unfortunately, it looks like this pest is here to stay in North America, and in the tropical plant industry at large.
In this post, we’ll focus on pesticide rotations to manage pesticide resistance, as well as a few tips and tricks to make sure your pesticides stay working.
Continue reading “Pesticide Rotation Guide for Thrips parvispinus in Canadian Greenhouses”
In this installment of our “how-to” video series, we’re bringing you two related videos about entomopathogens in the soil.
The first is a new addition that can help you determine if your microbial pesticides are alive and kicking after application. This can be super important after temperature fluctuations like the heat wave we just had.
The second video is an oldie but a goodie. It demonstrates quality control and proper application of parasitic nematodes in potting media.
Continue reading ““How-to” Videos: Checking the Quality of Entomopathogenic Fungi and Nematodes”