As canola begins to emerge, NDSU Extension entomologist Jan Knodel says farmers should start scouting for flea beetles. “You need to act quickly if you need to get insecticide spray on. They’re such a tiny beetle, but easy to identify, because they hop. There’s two species of flea beetles we see in canola: the striped flea beetle and the crucifer flea beetle. Scout your fields and make sure insecticide treatments are working.” The striped flea beetle is more difficult to control. “We know some striped flea beetles are resistant to neonicotinoid insecticide seed treatments. It’s a good idea to make sure you don’t have the striped flea beetle. We use the economic threshold of 20 to 25 percent defoliation on the seedling leaves starting to emerge.”
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