Orange/Yellow Wheat Blossom Midge

With winter wheat crops reaching booting, another pest is on the horizon which must be monitored, especially in higher value milling wheat crops. The pest in question is deemed fairly small and insignificant to most but if conditions are warm >15 oC and dry, damage can be significant.

Fortunately, we have a wide range of OWBM resistant varieties available, so your control strategy can start before the plant has even been sown. We also have a range of biological controls, natural enemies of the O/YWBM, such as Dance Flies, Spiders and Parasitic Wasps which can all reduce the pest pressure. 

Unfortunately, few varieties in the quality wheat sector (Group 1 & 2) have the resistance gene, so pheromone trap monitoring is recommended at GS 45, giving you an indication of the threshold pressure during the damager period, GS 51-59. If over 120 midges are found in the pheromone traps, then an insecticide application is justified. Visual inspections can be carried out and if 1 adult midge every 3-feed wheat or 6 milling wheat ears is present then an insecticide application can be justified. 

Actives such as beta-cyfluthrin or lambda-cyhalothrin should be applied in line with label restrictions.

Once the Wheat variety starts to flower Blossom midge are no longer a danger to the crop.

If thresholds are met and a control is not applied, specific weight, HFN, and sprouting can all be compromised, affecting yield and quality. Reports of up to 25% yield loss have been reported in recent years, with the YWBM deemed to have a larger effect on yield.