Insects forecast for 2022 following ideal year for some pests

Farmers will be looking for a better year as the growing season is slowly losing days, so they'll need to keep an eye on any potential pests.

That includes insects who thrived last year thanks to the dry and hot weather. They had a large impact on crops last year and may still have an impact this year as they left a good amount of eggs.

Provincial Insect Specialist James Tansey says that grasshoppers, one of the best-known pests, were a large beneficiary of that climate.

"Dry conditions, really warm conditions, these animals are real heat lovers. so we have long periods of activity, early emergence of adults, early development of those adults, so good population density, so the contribution to this year's generation is looking like it's going to be relatively large."

Tansey says that a lot can happen between the egg-laying and them becoming adults this year, from the beginning of May when they hatch to when they become adults later on.

That can be due to increased moisture, which either drowns nymphs or the increased humidity could cause fungal outbreaks among the populations.

On top of that, some of the grasshopper's natural predators also got a boost from the dry conditions, further stunting the population.

Another insect that has been affected by the weather last year was wheat midge - though Tansey said it had the opposite effect.

"Our survey for our forecast for last year indicated elevated populations, and that was greatly decreased last year because of the dry conditions. This is an animal that really likes the moisture, needs 25 millimeters before the end of May to complete its development and it really didn't see a lot of that in the regions in the province last year. The forecast for this year in the province is a low population."

Tansey says that even with that forecast farmers should still be sure to check their fields just in case.

For flea beetles, he says those are often a guessing game since there are so many variants of the beetles that respond differently.

For those that do come up, they'll be ready for quite the meal.