Entomologist at Ag in Motion says grasshoppers worse than previous years

People from the agriculture community streamed through the gates of Ag in Motion on Tuesday in Langham for Western Canada’s biggest outdoor farm show.

It’s a time when experts and farming businesses from all over the world come together to provide demonstrations, information and products for farmers.

One expert in particular warned farmers about pests that are ruining crops. In Saskatchewan, those pests are grasshoppers.

“It’s a multi-levelled problem where we see grasshopper populations building up over the last few years,” said Meghan Vankosky, a research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada studying field crop entomology.

“We’ve had a lot of years with very warm fall seasons, which gives grasshoppers a lot of time to lay eggs.”

Vankosky shared that crops all over Saskatchewan and neighbouring provinces have been eaten by grasshoppers.

These grasshoppers aren’t normal, she said. In fact, they’re almost double their usual size for this time of the year.

“People I know who have been doing this for 30 years have never seen adult pest grasshoppers in June,” said Vankosky.

“This year, just with the drought and then these huge populations, we’ve definitely seen a lot of damage to crops.”

Another dry fall could mean even more grasshoppers next summer, Vankosky warned.

Local Saskatchewan farmers like Dexter Jones are worried about the grasshopper problem.

“They’re devastating when they could really eat a crop up,” said Jones. “They’re a hard thing to control when they get to a certain size, and then it’s drier so you have less of a crop in the first place. It’s rough.”

Vankosky recommended checking the Prairie Pest Monitoring Update for continuous updates on grasshoppers and other pests that could affect crops.