Soybean gall midge is a new pest threatening soybean production in Minnesota and the Midwest. An important knowledge gap about this pest is how it responds to cold temperatures. This information is critically important for predicting how far north the pest might spread and how well its populations might survive from one growing season to the next. From this, growers can be informed about the potential risk that this pest poses for their fields and management practices could be developed to take advantage of cold sensitivity. The work proposed here is for the third of three years on this project to evaluate the cold hardiness of soybean gall midge. Established laboratory methods have been employed to measure the temperatures at which this pest freezes and dies. Further work in this third year will examine how the ability to survive cold might vary among the pest’s life stages. In addition, the data collected over the three-year project will be combined with historic soil temperature data to develop models for predicting pest potential throughout Minnesota, which will be disseminated using informative risk maps.

1. GOAL: To characterize the cold hardiness of soybean gall midge and incorporate this knowledge
into management programs, we propose the following objectives:
OBJECTIVES:
1. Develop actionable models to estimate winter mortality of soybean gall midge
2. Quantify the cold hardiness of different life stages of soybean gall midge

This project will provide several important deliverables that will advance soybean gall midge management in Minnesota. This project is producing foundational knowledge on the effects of cold temperatures on soybean gall midge survival. This knowledge is improving the general understanding of the biology of this pest. Furthermore, this knowledge on the cold hardiness of soybean gall midge will be used in advanced modeling procedures to predict of the potential northward expansion of this pest and year-to-year changes in population size. A very tangible project deliverable resulting from this work will be high-quality maps showing the potential geographic range of soybean gall midge in the Midwest and annual maps that will show predicted mortality induced by the previous winter’s cold temperatures. These maps will be housed on the UMN Extension website and made widely available to farmers and the agricultural community through our extension programming (see communication plan above) and through the communication channels of Minnesota Soybean. Finally, this project will facilitate the training of a graduate student in Entomology, who will gain expertise in pest ecology and integrated pest management.

Soybean gall midge is a new pest that poses a significant threat to soybean production. Currently, farmers in Minnesota do not know how widespread this pest will become nor how the pest population might change from one year to the next. This limits their ability to prepare for and respond to the pest. Investment in this project will enable us to provide research-based forecasting to inform farmers about their risk for this pest. More specifically, we will clarify which regions of Minnesota are at more or less risk for infestation by soybean gall midge. In addition, we will provide forecasts about the impact of winter on the coming year’s pest infestation. This information will be important for helping farmers determine if and what actions to take against soybean gall midge. Furthermore, understanding how cold affects the survival of this insect, recommendations for cultural control (e.g., tillage or residue management) could be developed to increase winter mortality of the pest.
Indirectly, the proposed work rearing this insect in the laboratory should advance our abilities for maintaining year-round colonies of this insect. To date, no researchers in the Midwest have been able to successfully maintain such laboratory colonies of this pest. Having the ability to produce soybean gall
midge in the laboratory year-round would advance all aspects of soybean gall midge research and greatly increase the rate at which management recommendations are being developed to help farmers protect their crop from this pest.