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2021 Ontario Cereal Leaf Beetle Survey

We are gathering cereal leaf beetle (CLB) data again this year to help validate growing degree day models generated by AAFC-Saskatchewan. If you are out scouting cereal fields this growing season and come across CLB, we want you to let us know where you are finding this pest, what stage and how many you are finding. To enter your field information, please complete the CLB survey at the following link: Cereal Leaf Beetle Survey. The survey can be accessed from your smartphone, tablet or you can enter the field location information at your desktop computer.

As part of the CLB survey, we would also like 15 to 30 CLB larvae per field collected in vials of alcohol (or hand sanitizer) to send to AAFC-Lethbridge. There, Dr. Haley Catton will dissect the larvae to search for the very important parasitoid wasp, Tetrastichus julius. So if you find larvae, please contact Tracey Baute (519-360-7817) to coordinate these collections.

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Alberta Honey: A Day at Molenkamp Honey Farms

Video: Alberta Honey: A Day at Molenkamp Honey Farms

When was the last time you read the label on your honey?

We spent a day at Molenkamp Honey Farms with Michael Molenkamp, who has been keeping bees for 17 seasons and runs three to four thousand hives. In mid-September, he was finishing treatments and getting his bees ready for winter, and he walked us through how Alberta honey gets made.

Alberta has just 150 commercial beekeepers running 300,000 colonies, and together they produce 40% of Canada’s honey. Long summer days and golden canola fields give Alberta honey a light flavour that’s hard to match anywhere else.

Molenkamp calls Alberta beekeepers some of the most resilient farmers he knows. There’s plenty of Alberta honey to go around, but a lot on our shelves isn’t from here, so his ask is simple. Give the label a second look and choose honey made by Alberta beekeepers, or buy straight from a beekeeper near you.