swede midge in different stages of development

Swede midge life cycle

Understanding the swede midge’s life cycle is the first 
step on the way to controlling this new pest

Swede midge adults emerge from mid-May to mid-June from pupae that have overwintered in the soil in cocoons. At least, this is the experience in Ontario — a great deal of research is still required to understand the insect and its life cycle nuances in Saskatchewan. The adult is a very small, delicate, light- brown/grey […] Read more

canola plant

Swede Midge: a potential ‘perfect storm’

There’s a new canola pest in town. 
It’s hard to spot and hard to control, 
but the damage it causes is easy to detect

Look up “perfect storm” in Wikipedia and you will see it is used to describe an event where a combination of circumstances will aggravate a situation drastically — and in a bad way. Such is the potential situation with an up-to-now unknown and non-native pest of cruciferous plants — swede midge. “This pest displays a […] Read more