News

Soybean gall midge an emerging invasive pest in Missouri

An emerging invasive pest in a few northwest Missouri Counties is expected to spread throughout soybean crops in the state.

Kevin Rice, University of Missouri Extension field crop entomologist, tells Brownfield Ag News, “In the last few years we’ve had explosive growth in populations in our neighboring states and we’ve detected that species in Atchison Holt and Counties and we expect it to further spread throughout the state. It is very economically damaging.”

Rice says there’s no way to control soybean gall midge yet, “Soybean gall midge is active AFTER the seed treatments are already out of the plant and foliar sprays don’t seem to be effective currently.”

Because it is a newly identified species, there are no published research papers on soybean gall midge. Rice says the University of Missouri is getting research funding from the North Central Soybean Research Program looking at variety resistance and pesticide management in the future.

Brownfield interviewed Rice about the two leading crop pests, soybean gall midge and brown marmorated stink bug, at the MU Pest Management Field Day at the MU Bradford Research Farm earlier this month.