Little green insects known as aphids have been rampant in Regina this summer. And that means honeydew, the sticky substance that aphids excrete, is being found all across the city. “Residents are seeing a lot of the honeydew making a mess all over their driveways, their cars, their furniture. It is really frustrating, we understand that,” said Ashley Thompson, manager of parks and technical services with the City of Regina. Regina is no stranger to dealing with the insects, as they pop up annually. But this summer, pockets of dry and hot weather have made for ideal conditions for aphids to thrive in. Thompson said it’s a tall task to curb the population. “We will spray insecticidal soap where necessary. So, we use a high-pressure spray system to spray the canopy,” she said. “It’s very temporary. It does have to contact the insect to actually control it.” The miniscule green bugs don’t just wreak havoc in Saskatchewan cities — they can also cause headaches for farmers. “There are still faba crops that are still quite green and quite sensitive right now to pea aphid. We’ve been seeing some pretty significant numbers and hearing reports of pretty significant numbers of aphid in lentil crops in particular,” said James Tansey, provincial specialist in Insect Invertebrate Pest Management. Members of the Prager Lab at the University of Saskatchewan like research assistant Matt Remenda, recently travelled the province to gather and study pea aphids. Largely because some of their preliminary data has found that these insects are showing signs of immunity to some widely used insecticides. As a result, the lab has come up with a potential solution. “It’s developing resistant cultivar, so essentially plants that the aphids don’t like and don’t do well on. Now as far as actually commercializing this and getting them out there for people to be able to grow, we’re still a few years away from being able to do that,” explained Remenda.
