I was looking back at some of my first hotline messages over the past few years and there is every indication that we are up to 3 weeks ahead of where we usually are this time of year. One of the results of this is that there was almost no grey snow mould to speak of in the southwestern part of the province. There was not a long enough period of snow cover for grey snow mould to develop. As far as pink snow mould, there was some disease activity, but the pink snow mould scars are smaller than usual. This can be explained by the short period of snow cover.
Voles are another one of the pests which usually cause nuisance damage during the winter.
There was very little damage from voles either this winter. One pest that is prominent again this spring is the European chafer grub. Grubs have been up near the soil surface for several weeks already. With some of the warmer nights where there isn't frost in the ground, the raccoons and skunks have been foraging for the grubs. Starlings and other birds have also been pulling out tufts of grass in search of grubs.