Orange Gall Midge in Soybeans

Aug 02, 2018

By Aaron Nygren

Figure 1. Soybean plants exhibiting signs of wilting (A) and necrosis (B) in fields in eastern Nebraska.

In late June we began receiving reports from a number of consultants, growers, and extension educators who were observing dying soybean plants (Figure 1) in fields across eastern Nebraska. These soybean plants typically have dark discolorations near the soil surface (Figure 2) that can extend up to the unifoliate node. The symptomatic plants easily snap off near the soil surface and orange to white maggots are often found feeding within the darkened area of the plant.

Orange gall midge is not a new insect to soybeans in Nebraska. Tom Hunt, Keith Jarvi and Bob Wright reported on the orange gall midge in a CropWatch article from August 2011 with some small isolated cases mostly associated with soybean plants that had some type of mechanical damage earlier in the season. Sporadic and isolated cases of orange gall midge have occurred over the last few years, but in all cases it appeared to be associated with a pathogen or damage and wasn’t considered a primary pest of soybeans.

This year we’re tracking a number of soybean fields where orange gall midge was reported in late June through early July. These infestations are much earlier than had been reported historically, raising concerns about yield losses in soybean fields. In late June infested soybean plants were already showing signs of necrosis and wilting with the greatest frequency of damaged plants occurring at the field edge. Randomly selected symptomatic plants from the field edge had an average of seven maggots per plant with the number of maggots and frequency of infested plants declining rapidly with distance from the field edge. Field samples found infested plants were still present over 100 feet into the field. Soybean fields exhibiting these symptoms have also been reported in northeast Nebraska, eastern South Dakota, and Iowa.

Figure 2. Soybean plant with dark discoloration at the base of the stem (A) and the presence of orange gall midge (B) after removing outer plant tissue.

Soybean plant damage

Little is known about the orange gall midge. Nebraska, South Dakota and Iowa researchers are currently attempting to rear adults from the maggots for species identification. In Nebraska, we’ve repotted infested plants from the field and placed them in a greenhouse with cages to capture the adults. In addition, we’ve also placed cages on infested plants in the field. Some adult midges have recently emerged from the repotted soybean plants in the greenhouse and we’ve transferred them to healthy and mechanically damaged soybean plants to see if we can recreate the symptoms. It is still not known if these midges are associated with orange gall midge. If emergence and adult numbers continue to increase, we will submit these specimens for identification.

Management

Many growers and consultants are asking us how to manage this pest. As of now, we don’t recommend applying any pesticides to fields due to the following factors. First, it’s unclear whether orange gall midge is responsible for the damage observed in soybean plants or if it’s a secondary pest. Mounting evidence is suggesting that orange gall midge may have a role in the damage. Second, pesticides are not likely to control the maggots that are feeding inside the stem. Lastly, it’s not known when adult orange gall midges emerge or the duration of emergence in soybean fields. Such factors are critical for determining if any economic returns will occur from a pesticide application.

Source: unl.edu

Video: Why Your Food Future Could be Trapped in a Seed Morgue

In a world of PowerPoint overload, Rex Bernardo stands out. No bullet points. No charts. No jargon. Just stories and photographs. At this year’s National Association for Plant Breeding conference on the Big Island of Hawaii, he stood before a room of peers — all experts in the science of seeds — and did something radical: he showed them images. He told them stories. And he asked them to remember not what they saw, but how they felt.

Bernardo, recipient of the 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award, has spent his career searching for the genetic treasures tucked inside what plant breeders call exotic germplasm — ancient, often wild genetic lines that hold secrets to resilience, taste, and traits we've forgotten to value.

But Bernardo didn’t always think this way.

“I worked in private industry for nearly a decade,” he recalls. “I remember one breeder saying, ‘We’re making new hybrids, but they’re basically the same genetics.’ That stuck with me. Where is the new diversity going to come from?”

For Bernardo, part of the answer lies in the world’s gene banks — vast vaults of seed samples collected from every corner of the globe. Yet, he says, many of these vaults have quietly become “seed morgues.” “Something goes in, but it never comes out,” he explains. “We need to start treating these collections like living investments, not museums of dead potential.”

That potential — and the barriers to unlocking it — are deeply personal for Bernardo. He’s wrestled with international policies that prevent access to valuable lines (like North Korean corn) and with the slow, painstaking science of transferring useful traits from wild relatives into elite lines that farmers can actually grow. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. But he’s convinced that success starts not in the lab, but in the way we communicate.

“The fact sheet model isn’t cutting it anymore,” he says. “We hand out a paper about a new variety and think that’s enough. But stories? Plants you can see and touch? That’s what stays with people.”

Bernardo practices what he preaches. At the University of Minnesota, he helped launch a student-led breeding program that’s working to adapt leafy African vegetables for the Twin Cities’ African diaspora. The goal? Culturally relevant crops that mature in Minnesota’s shorter growing season — and can be regrown year after year.

“That’s real impact,” he says. “Helping people grow food that’s meaningful to them, not just what's commercially viable.”

He’s also brewed plant breeding into something more relatable — literally. Coffee and beer have become unexpected tools in his mission to make science accessible. His undergraduate course on coffee, for instance, connects the dots between genetics, geography, and culture. “Everyone drinks coffee,” he says. “It’s a conversation starter. It’s a gateway into plant science.”