Research Objective
To provide pre-season programming in the form of training dealers and growers in identifying early stages of damaging grasshoppers; to develop the initial set of equations of a spring hatching model to provide growers with a better predictive tool; to assess the efficacy of bran baits versus biocontrol as a control method for grassoppers in near harvest lentils.
A booklet was printed in a 3000 copy printing in 2007 as a durable field guide. It was presented to producers at extension events and was formatted for the web in a downloadable format. The biological gave control levels that were commercially acceptable, with percent control roughly equal to that seen with conventional, commonly used organophosphate insecticides. A beta version of the model was launched in the 2009 season. Updated twice weekly, growers could access it via links at the Saskatchewan Pulse Grower website.