We're entering that time of year when insects are starting to become a concern.

John Gavloski, entomologist with Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Development (MAFRD) says flea beetles have been spotted in canola.

He notes newly emerging plants at most at risk.

"Once the crop gets three to four true leaves that are out, the plants generally can start to compensate quite well for the flea beetle feeding. Prior to that we do need to watch the crops...We tend to suggest if you start seeing anywhere around 25 per cent or more pitting on the cotyledons, that's what we tend to use as our economic threshold for deciding 'do we need to do a spray or not?'"

Gavloski adds that canola that was planted three weeks ago or longer is also at risk as the seed treatment will have probably worn off by now.

He notes cutworms are also around and will affect most crop types.

"Right now they're still small and it's going to depend on the species that you have...Redback right now is very small, they've just hatched out not too long ago. At this point people would start seeing a little bit of their feeding but maybe not be seeing any insects in the field, so you'd have to dig around a bit. When they're really small they're not doing clipping they're just taking notches out of leaves."

Gavloski says that producers should also be scouting for dingy cutworms, which would be a lot bigger and would eat much of the plant.

He notes that it is not uncommon for producers to also find a few wire worms in the soil.

A Weekly Insect and Disease Update can be found on the MAFRD website.