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Soybean gall midge scouting tips

Reports of soybean gall midge have been on the rise, and an agronomist says farmers in the Corn Belt should be scouting their soybean fields.

Meaghan Anderson with Iowa State University says field edges are the first place to look. “Whether it’s across a highway, across a fence line, or right up next to each other, check those edges of the fields and look at the base of those soybean plants,” she said.

She tells Brownfield soybean gall midge can be identified by spotting darkened lesions around the stems. “There’s typically a black color to a lesion,” Anderson said. “Plants can also become very brittle, and so sometimes they are easy to push over. We just peel back the stem material and look for the bright orange larvae.”

Anderson says the pest can cause significant yield reductions.

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