In this edition of the SpudChat podcast, Ryan Barrett with the Prince Edward Island Potato Board talks to Dr. Christine Noronha, a research entomologist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) in Charlottetown. Christine is an expert on wireworm and has been doing a lot of work on wireworm research in cooperation with PEI potato growers for the last more than ten years.
Ryan and Christine also discuss other bugs that she monitors and works with, like corn borer and flea beetle. Christine specializes in integrated pest management, mostly best management practices related to potato pests.
For the last decade or so, Christine worked on wireworm and developing, or at least helping to investigate different tools for control of wireworm. There’s been insecticide trials, including testing a recently registered BASF insecticide, but there’s also been the work on mustards and work on trapping crops.
Go here to listen to the full podcast.
Source: SpudChat | Prince Edward Island Potato Board
Photo: A healthy potato tuber (left) compared to one damaged (right). The tunneling results from late summer feeding by wireworm larvae. Image credit R. S. Vernon via AAFC
Related: Wireworm Management in Potatoes – Research Update
Related: Can buckwheat be the new top crop on the rotation block?
Photo below: Dr. Christine Noronha (left) and Dr. Jason McCallum (right) kneel in buckwheat grown at AAFC Harrington Research Farm on Prince Edward Island | Credit AAFC
