#Midge Busters - wheat midge phermone trap monitoring program shows benefits

Wheat midge is one of the top three most damaging insect pests for wheat crops in the prairies.

Dr.Tyler Wist is a field crop entamologist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Saskatoon.

During this week's "Think Wheat" meetings he talked about the Midge Busters phermone trap monitoring project.

Producers and agronomists that volunteer for the program are given a phermone trap to put out in the wheat field, they then count the wheat midge on their traps bi-weekly.

Wist says they're partnering with Secan giving phermone traps to growers that volunteer to be a part of the program.

"It is a trap that smells like a female wheat Midge, so it's like catnip for male wheat midge. We're using that to try to track the numbers of wheat Midge in people's field, and also, when those wheat Midge emerge."