Pest may have spread into B.C. | Sixteen fields in northern Alberta have midge damage
EDMONTON — Wheat midge, the tiny orange fly that can cause thousands of dollars in damage to wheat crops, has been found for the first time in Alberta’s Peace River area.
Jennifer Otani, pest management biologist with Agriculture Canada, said the insect was first detected near Fort Vermilion in the far north, but was found throughout the Peace when researchers searched for it.
“Where we thought it was just going to be was around Fort Vermilion and Manning at the beginning,” Otani told producers at the Farmtech 2012 conference in Edmonton.
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“It is all the way to Grande Prairie, High Prairie and McLennan. It seems like it is throughout and in very low densities.”
Sixteen fields were found to have larvae and midge damage. Core soil samples also showed larvae in the soil of other fields.
“They are very small insects, but they can have a big impact,” said Otani. “This is certainly a new thing we are going to have to deal with.”
Wheat midge caused $40 million in damage on the Prairies in 2006. In Alberta, the traditional hot spots are in the southern part of the province.
Otani said farmers and agrologists must be vigilant in monitoring and searching for the pest.
“Monitoring becomes key. It’s not at a serious stage where we need to be thinking of midge resistant varieties, but rather consider rotations and do monitoring.”
Adult midge emerge from the pupae stage in late June or early July. Females lay eggs in the evening on the newly emerged wheat heads. After hatching, the small orange larvae move from the outer surface to the head to feed on the kernels. The larvae crawl off the wheat after two to three weeks and bury themselves in the soil.
Otani said farmers need to learn more about the insect to help reduce the damage that can downgrade grain.
“It was fairly serious damage in a few fields.”
Otani doesn’t know how it came to the Peace River area, but suspects it has slowly dispersed and moved north over the years. She said it is likely also in the British Columbia Peace, but she never had time to survey B.C. fields.
Otani said she has talked to re-searchers in Winnipeg who found wheat midge larvae 10 years ago near Beaverlodge, Alta., but could never find it again.
