Mid-July is that time of year when we begin to see corn earworm moth activity really pick up in Virginia. As most of us know, corn earworm moths deposit their eggs on flowering plants of many important agricultural crops including sweet corn, cotton, soybean, and hemp, to name a few. Eggs hatch in a couple days into larvae that feed on buds, flowers, fruit, and leaves. Pheromone trap counts of 7 or more CEW moths per week indicates that this pest is active on the farm and could potentially become a pest threat.
Trap catch for this week ending July 14 at several locations is as follows:
| Corn Earworm Trap Location | moths per wk | |||||
| Location | 6/9 | 6/15 | 6/22 | 6/29 | 7/6 | 7/13 |
| Townsend | 46 | 7 | 3 | 4 | 19 | 3 |
| Cheriton | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Machipongo | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| Nassawadox | 3 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Chatham | 40 | 50 | 55 | |||
| Blacksburg | 2 | 10 | 8 |
In summary, CEW moth activity has subsided on the Eastern Shore for the time being as the pest is likely mostly in the larval stage right now. In Chatham (southside VA) CEW moth activity has remained high >50 moths per week. Blacksburg, VA has experienced only low moth numbers so far.
Thank you to Helene Doughty who is monitoring the traps on the Eastern Shore, Bill Tiver who is monitoring a trap in Clover, VA, and Brian Currin who is monitoring traps around Blacksburg.