Corn earworm is on the rise. Trap catches started increasing this week, up from near zero last week, and we are seeing moths flying in soybean, peanut and cotton fields. The worst news on corn earworm relates to the resistance monitoring program. As in the past several years, we are testing live-caught male moths in what we call the AVT program (adult vial test). Live moths are placed individually into small glass vials pretreated with a known amount of cypermethrin (the pyrethroid used throughout the south in the AVT program). We check the vials in 24 hours and any live moths are considered to be ‘survivors’ demonstrating resistance. Although we have only tested 363 moths to date, we found that 48% survived in this week’s sample (see the attached chart). This is the highest level ever recorded in Virginia. Last year we found about 40% survivorship in some later season samples, which was the highest level for the years up to 2009. We will continue posting the AVT results, but all indications are that we may be in for some pyrethroid control issues again this summer. Additional information: cew-avt-jul-22-2010-ppt