Another year's crop is off the field and in the bin in Manitoba, and looking back on the growing season, some of the greatest insect concerns were flea beetles, cutworms, armyworm, and European corn borer.

Corn borer levels were higher in crops this year than in the past, with the pests particularly affecting corn and potato crops. Provincial entomologist John Gavloski says some producers sprayed affected corn crops, but most didn't notice the borer in potatoes until after they'd gotten into the stems.

He says it's hard to say why European corn borer levels were higher this year.

"They go through their cycles where populations build and then drop," Gavloski says, "they're also regulated to some degree by natural enemies."

He also thinks producers have sort of stepped away from growing corn borer-resistant Bt corn because of its cost.

Gavloski says flea beetles were another top concern in the province, as canola crops were in a more vulnerable stage for a longer period of time.

"Most of the canola comes with a seed treatment that controls flea beetles for about the first three weeks," he says. "The problem is from the time of seeding, the plant needs to get to about the three-leaf stage before that seed treatment wears off for them to really do the job alone in protecting from flea beetles. What happened this year, people seeded, they seeded early a lot of times, and the canola was really taking a long time to get to that three to four leaf stage, so a lot of people did have to do some foliar spraying for flea beetles."

Looking forward to next year's growing season, Gavloski says flea beetles, cutworms, and alfalfa weevil are the insects producers should keep an eye on, as all three overwinter.