Research from the University of Minnesota Extension shows that one of the newest bugs on the block, the soybean gall midge, is starting to show up in dry bean fields. “For those first several years, we thought it was only attacking soybeans, but a couple of years ago, we confirmed that soybean gall midge can attack some dry bean varieties and other pulse crops,” says University of Minnesota Extension Entomologist Robert Koch. Since this discovery, Koch and other Extension researchers have undertaken a new project investigating how soybean gall midge impacts dry beans throughout the region. “It’s going to get started this spring and has three years of funding from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. We just sent out a notification through our Crop News blog to let farmers and their advisors know that if they suspect an infestation of soybean gall midge in their dry bean fields, we’d love to hear about it so that I could send some staff out there to take a look at the insects, take a look at the plants and try to confirm if it really is the soybean gall midge.”
