Gall midge management largely a mystery for soybean farmers

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Gall midge management largely a mystery for soybean farmers

An extension soybean agronomist suggests there are more questions than answers when it comes to managing gall midge.

Seth Naeve with the University of Minnesota tells Brownfield control is a problem.

“I don’t think we’ve got a lot of really good management for it yet, and that’s really the challenge is it’s hard to deal with.”

He says most of the gall midge pressure is found along field edges with the pest moving short distances from previous soybean crops.

“I just tell farmers they need to get out in their fields and scout around. They don’t necessarily know what they’re looking for, but look for problems. And if they have some wilty or dead plants, if it’s disease get them cultured (to) find out what they’ve got.”

But if it’s not disease, Naeve says farmers should split the soybean stems to look for gall midge larvae.

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