01 Aug Pest/Disease Update – Aug 1
Posted at 16:15h
in Recent News
Quick pest/disease update for the end of the week:
July Weather Report:
Table 1: Rainfall amounts for the month of July (current year 2025 vs historical records 1981-2010)
| Rainfall (mm) | |||
| Location | July 2025 | Historical 1981-2010 |
Difference |
| O’Leary | 98.0 | 96.0 | 2.0 |
| Summerside | 40.7 | 82.1 | -41.4 |
| Charlottetown | 44.8 | 79.9 | -35.1 |
| Souris | 63.0 | 86.6 | -23.6 |
Table 2: Cumulative rainfall totals for 2025 growing season compared with historical cumulative rainfall
| Rainfall (mm) | ||||||
| Location | May 2025 | June 2025 | July 2025 | 2025
Cumulative |
Historical Cumulative | Difference |
| O’Leary | 89.4 | 70.0 | 98.0 | 266.4 | 283.7 | -17.3 |
| Summerside | 89.3 | 49.8 | 40.7 | 179.8 | 272.1 | -92.3 |
| Charlottetown | 99.1 | 102.1 | 44.8 | 246 | 269.7 | -23.7 |
| Souris | 84.4 | 97.6 | 63.0 | 245 | 280.6 | -35.6 |
Only West Prince had average rainfall in July, with East Prince and Charlottetown being about 50% of normal. So far this growing season, Summerside has only had 66% of normal rainfall, while other locations are at 85-90% of normal rainfall.
Growing degree days (GDD) were about 10% above normal in July across the province, and are about 10-15% above normal for the season so far.
Aphid Alert:
- Total aphids down slightly this week (3.1 per sample vs 4.1 last week)
- Majority of aphids continue to be “other aphids”, but we did trap one Green Peach Aphid this week
- Tarnished plant bug numbers are increasing, though not at threshold levels in most fields.
- East Prince continues to have the highest amount of aphids.
| Region | Week Ending | Number of Samples | Green Peach Aphid | Potato Aphid | Buckthorn Aphid | Bird Cherry-Oat Aphid | Other Aphid | Tarnished Plant Bug | Total Aphids | Ave. Aphids per Sample |
| WEST PRINCE | 02-Aug-25 | 28 | 1 | 9 | 5 | 1 | 53 | 6 | 69 | 2.46 |
| EAST PRINCE | 02-Aug-25 | 28 | 0 | 3 | 9 | 7 | 129 | 21 | 148 | 5.29 |
| CENTRAL QUEENS | 02-Aug-25 | 22 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 33 | 4 | 39 | 1.77 |
| SE QUEENS/KINGS | 02-Aug-25 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 5 | 2.50 |
| EAST KINGS | 02-Aug-25 | 14 | 0 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 23 | 3 | 31 | 2.21 |
| Total | 94 | 1 | 19 | 19 | 11 | 242 | 34 | 292 | 3.11 |
Air Spore:
| July 30th, 2025 | ||||
| Early Blight | Brown Spot | Grey Mold | ||
| West Prince | 0 | 11 | 4 | |
| East Prince | 27 | 42 | 5 | |
| Queens | 0 | 3 | 2 | |
| Kings | 8 | 0 | 1 | |
- No late blight spores detected in PEI or NB so far this week. The weather does not look favourable to late blight development for the next week.
- Early blight and brown spot spore counts are starting to increase in East Prince, where it has been driest.
- Bortrytis spores remain low and risk of infection remains low.
Additional Notes:
- There is a demo of a 360 Rain irrigation system taking place next Tuesday and Wednesday (Aug 5/6) in Emerald. If interested in checking this out, please contact 46Ag at (902) 874-0348 or emily@46ag.ca.
- The next Crop Update meeting will be held Aug 12th at AIC in Kensington at 2:30 pm. Zoom details will be circulated ahead of the meeting.