A new midge has been discovered while researchers were gathering information on swede midge. A genetic test came back last December identifying the insect as a relative of swede midge.

Awareness of the new midge is relatively low, but the new midge is not a huge risk to producers.

Scott Meers, Insect Management Specialist with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry, says the midge only attacks the canola flower and not the plant in earlier stages.

"Our survey last year, we did one hundred plants in a field and the most we found was fifteen flowers effected in a hundred plants. A hundred plants would have somewhere around several thousand flowers, and we found fifteen individual flowers, so it's really not a big deal. It's just something new in canola."

Meers adds, they think the midge has been around for a long time, but they've just noticed it now while they've been conducting their swede midge research.

In the future, they want to understand how wide spread the new midge is.