Pests & Predators Podcast, Ep 19: Mapping systems for Prairie pest protection

(Kara Oosterhuis/RealAgriculture)

Welcome to Season 4 of the Pests & Predators podcast series, where top entomologists highlight the insect Field Heroes hard at work for Canadian farmers.

Dr. Meghan Vankosky, research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) at Saskatoon, Sask., co-chairs the Prairie Pest Monitoring Network (PPMN), a key tool in alerting farmers to pest population dynamics in the growing season.

In this podcast, she explains how the PPMN racks and reports on the population densities and distributions of six insect pests: grasshopper, wheat midge, diamondback moth, bertha armyworm, swede midge, wheat stem sawfly, and cabbage seedpod weevil.

A collaborative effort, the network is online for anyone to access and includes risk maps, field guides, and helpful tips for managing key pests.

Listen on for a discussion with Dr. Vankosky and host Shaun Haney:

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