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European Corn Borer Numbers are up again in 2009
July 2, 2009
In the last two years, first generation European corn borer activity has increased compared to the early 2000’s. Entomologists in Iowa and Nebraska have recently reported increased adult moth catches. This means that you should be scouting your refuge corn to determine if an insecticide needs to be applied.
Scouting
Adult female moths prefer to lay eggs in the tallest cornfields first. High humidity and warm temperatures are ideal for establishment of larvae in the whorl. All refuge fields should be scouted every year. Scouting is a two-part process:
1. Pull the whorls from 5 randomly selected plants at 5 different locations;
2. Unroll the leaves and count the number of larvae per plant.
Next use this link to dynamic threshold spreadsheet to calculate your profit/loss margin.