Every year the Moose Jaw River Watershed Stewards have collected leafy spurge beetles at Besant Campground near Mortlach, SK. Leafy Spurge has been identified in our province for almost 100 years, because of the rapid spread of the invasive plant we no longer had the manpower to collect enough beetles for our watershed. For the first time, we asked for volunteers or monetary donations. We had 9 volunteers over 2 days collect 50,000 beetles to be distributed in just the Moose Jaw River Watershed.
We are establishing 2 new colonies of leafy spurge beetles. A producer in the RM of Baildon (131) has stated that the beetles are now coming back each year, indicating that they are overwintering in the soil. We have also added beetles to a site in Wakamow valley for 4 years and will continue to do so until we have an established colony.
We also now have 7 beetle nets for our volunteers and created a beetle sorter. We will continue to offer this service year after year. If you would like to book beetles for your land next year then contact [email protected]. This event was sponsored by SaskEnergy.
