2018 Strawberry Season Update #2 - APHIDS

Friday, June 29, 2018




Perennia is continuing the strawberry aphid monitoring project this season. The strawberry aphid is the primary vector of viruses in strawberries, and by monitoring the aphid we aim to prevent further spread of viruses in the province. The risk of new infection is highest during the strawberry aphid flight period when winged aphids can move large distances to new fields and spread infection. As of this week’s aphid trapping and monitoring we have not found any winged strawberry aphids. There will be a blog post when the first winged strawberry aphids are picked up as well as update blogs on the status of the flight. At this point it is important to continue to scout for winged and wingless strawberry aphids in your fields. 


Adult strawberry aphid
Winged strawberry aphid


To prevent virus spread it is important to protect new plantings by controlling aphids in established fruiting fields. Seeing that we are in the midst of harvest there are limited products available for fruiting fields but there are a few tools with short (0 day or 1 day) pre-harvest intervals. For information on control options please see Perennia's Strawberry Management Guide 2018 .