News Insect Pests
Understanding economic thresholds for pest scouting

When it comes to making pesticide application decisions, scouting becomes very important. Kaeley Kindrachuk, crops extension specialist with Saskatchewan Agriculture, explains everything producers need to know about economic thresholds and where producers can go to for more information.

Economic thresholds for insect pests are the populations an insect pest can reach in a field before a further increase in population will start affecting yield or quality of the crop. Once this ‘economic threshold’ is exceeded, the financial losses for a producer will exceed the cost of controlling the pest. Knowing what the economic threshold is for a variety of pests assists producers in the decision making process. Read Kindrachuk’s full post on economic thresholds.