A major infestation of pests in canola last season was controlled with a single application of Exirel® insecticide on a property east of Geraldton, in Western Australia.
Kyle Smith and his family farm are located 70 kilometres east of Geraldton, at Mullewa, on the edge of the Eradu Sandplain.
Last season the crop included some 3400 hectares of canola which was sown in April and May.
Pests are always a concern in the region, and it is common practice to add Trojan® insecticide with the glyphosate spray early in the crop’s development.
Mr Smith said this would normally take care of the early pest pressure and a second application of insecticide was sometimes required at flowering.
Last season, the early start and wet conditions saw the initial planting hammered by pests and some areas received a spray even before the post-emergent option.
He said they were playing catchup with the fertiliser, and the plants were under stress so were vulnerable to insect attack.
While the pest activity was high early in the season, the real challenges emerged when sweeping the crops in early August.
“Dad and I were sweeping and putting them into a 20-litre bucket,” Mr Smith said. “We were finding upwards of 100 to 120 grubs in our sweeps, and it was just count, count, count. They were all tiny as well. It puts the pressure on a bit.
“We’d got caught up in the shed fixing things and getting ready for harvest when we should have spent more time out sweeping and looking at the crops. There has got to be a bit more of a balance.”
He said they were concerned they’d left it too late and took the advice of Glenn Bryant, of Mullewa Farm Supplies, to use Exirel® insecticide in conjunction with Parachute® Paraffinic spray oil.
“We had been using the same chemistry for bugs for a couple of years, so we decided to switch it up,” Mr Smith said. “Exirel® really did a good job.”
It was initially used in the problem area and that success meant it was applied to the rest of the canola on the property, as pest counts increased in those areas.
Pests included Heliothis, Diamondback moth and aphids so the combination of Exirel® and Parachute® performed particularly well on a multitude of species and sizes.
“There were lots of different stages. There were young grubs and older grubs and so one spray got rid of all those nasty ones”.
Mr Smith said most of the insecticide was aerially applied at full flower from the second week of September, with the pests hammering the crop as it was starting to bulk out.
“Aphids were going right up the stems and damaging the flowers and having a great time.”
He said Exirel® worked really well and there were hardly any pests caught in the sweeps in the weeks that followed into harvest.
The success of the insecticide meant it was purchased and stored in the shed ready for the next season.