Soybean gall midge adults have been detected in emergence cages on this year’s soybean at multiple locations in eastern Nebraska. A significant spike in emergence was reported today in Saunders County near Mead, NE. This is about 10-14 days behind last year’s emergence of adults from the current year’s soybean crop. Adults are still emerging from last year’s soybean at a few sites in east-central Nebraska but a very low numbers.
Wilting and dead soybean plants from larval feeding have been found in Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota, and Minnesota over the past week. In general, we have observed a reduction in larval number in the last 7-14 days indicating that larvae have likely gone to the soil to pupate and emerge as adults. We expect other sites will see adult emergence from this year’s soybean in the next few days. Adult emergence activity for soybean gall midge can be found on the soybeangallmidge.org website.
We do not recommend taking any management action against soybean gall midge at this point in the season. Now is a good time to scout soybean fields for the presence of larvae at the base of the plant. Before you scout, check out the scouting videos at https://soybeangallmidge.org/scouting-for-soybean-gall-midge.
We will be conducting field surveys to detect the presence of soybean gall midge in several states across the Midwest over the next couple of weeks. Any new county detections will be added to the soybean gall midge website under the “Distribution” button. If you find soybean gall midge larvae and your county is not indicated as infested, then please contact your state specialist under the contacts tab on the soybean gall midge website.
