In his final regular weekly Call of the Land interview, Alberta Agriculture pest management specialist Scott Meers says there have been some reports of wheat head armyworms, with one “pretty major hotspot” in Wheatland County and into Kneehill County, with some reports from the Peace.

Meers says the insect is difficult to spot as it is the same colour as the kernels. “The good news is that we rarely see anything for numbers. The exception is that I’m going to see one field this afternoon and it may have economic levels in it.”

He says little is known about management and numbers are usually too low to cause damage, so there is no established threshold for spraying.

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Meers also says fall surveys will soon be underway for wheat midge and wheat stem sawfly.