Part XVIII: The Corn Earworm

(Page 2 of 2)

September/October 1986
By Ron West 
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With corn, control is a bit more tricky since the earworms are hidden almost from the moment they're hatched. However, approaches other than hand-crushing and surface-treating are available. To begin with, you can plant those varieties of corn that are resistant to earworm invasion — such as Country Gentleman, Iona, Aristogold, Seneca Scout, and Seneca Chief. Then there's the traditional method of corn earworm control that involves placing a few drops of mineral oil at the top of each corn ear where the silk emerges. (Caution: This treatment may cause damage to some varieties of corn during hot, dry weather. Consequently, I'd test the oil treatment on a few ears before getting too carried away with it.)

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There are a lot of companies that spend big bucks every year trying to convince us that we have to buy something in order to control pests in our gardens. While this may be so in some cases, I can knock down an earworm infestation with my bare hands in less time than it takes to read the instructions and warnings on a can of your typical bug blaster. How? After the silks on my corn are dried (or nearly so), I pull the sheath from around the tip of each ear and remove and destroy any worms. Afterwards, I pull the sheath back together tightly to discourage other invaders, and secure it with a long twist-tie. When the ear is ready to harvest, I simply cut of the worm-damaged area — which is usually confined to the tip.

If you live north of Tennessee and east of the Rockies, you might very well have encountered another variety of earworm, the European corn borer ( Ostrinia nubilalis ). This grayish pink caterpillar begins its feeding life by attacking corn leaf whorls, but eventually gets around to boring into the stalks and ears. Early planting and the use of corn types that are resistant to the European borer — such as Stowell's Evergreen, Butter, Sugar, Bellringer, and Wonderful varieties — are the safest and most effective ways to control this unwelcome immigrant. Early applications of BT are also effective, but the pesticide must be repeated every seven to ten days, with the first few sprayings directed at the whorls and later treatments applied to the ears, tassels, and leaf axils.

There's no denying that growing your own sweet corn brings on a fair share of pest problems, but the end product is more than worth the effort.

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