Over the past couple of weeks many areas of Virginia experienced some unusually high corn earworm moth activity. This early brief peak of moths was not typical, was likely not the result of migratory moths coming up from the southern U.S., but rather was the result of overwintering corn earworm pupae in Virginia and the fact that we had record high densities of this pest last summer. Nonetheless, this early blip in activity has pretty much run its course. However, if sweet corn was at a vulnerable state (tassel or later), there could be much more “worm” pressure on early sweet corn.
Based on 30 years of monitoring, the major flight of corn earworms will likely occur in mid-July in Virginia.
I’ve attachded a summary of our sweetcorn insecticide research data at Virginia Tech. Click “More” to get this report.
Best regards,
Tom Kuhar Additional information: kuharsweetcorn-ipm-handout-2010-doc