If you ’re prosperous enough to grow your ownsweet corn , you may occasionally obtain yourself running into corn earworms . This dreaded pestilence of several crops has a major “ ick factor ” for sure , and managing it without chemical can be a challenge . But like all other pests , the first step in combat clavus earworms is understanding their lifecycle .
The corn earworm ( Heliothis genus Zea ) , is the larva of a glum - brown or olive - green , dark - fly moth . When to the full grown , earworm caterpillars are over 1 in long . These larvae have a creamy yellow or black stripe down their side , and they ’re most often found curled into a C - shape and feeding just at the basis of the silk on an pinna of corn whiskey . The same specie also flow ontomatoes , where they ’re call tomato fruit worms . On tomatoes , their damage appear as perfectly round holes drilled through the ripe fruits .
Corn earworms are so elusive in the maize patch because not only do the maturing larvae feed on the corn whisky itself , but when the plant is still immature , the freshly hatched Caterpillar also fertilize on the leaves and tassel of the plant . We tend to point out them most when we crack up undecided the husk of an pinna of corn whiskey and discover them hidden indoors .
The best way to control Indian corn earworms without resorting to synthetic chemical pesticide is to end the top of the developing spike as shortly as the silk begins to develop . you could use a clothes pin , a microprocessor chip clip , or a piece of clear packing tape to hold the top of the chaff together . The distaff moth will lie her egg on the silk as common , but the immature caterpillars will not be able to gain reach the developing silks . you’re able to also apply five drops of corn fossil oil lace with the biological insecticideBacillus thuringiensis(Bt ) to the tip of each pinna when the silk begins to brown . utilise 3 tablespoons Bt per quart oil . It might seem like a bother to apply the Bt and fossil oil combo , but anoil applicatorcan make it a small easier .
There ’s one last direction to send corn earworms packing : boost the multitude ofparasitic waspspecies and tachinid flies that use the corn earworm caterpillars as hosts for their developing new . Invite these parasitoids into the garden by constitute lots of blossom herbs and annual throughout the corn patch , including dill , Florence fennel , sunflowers , cosmos , cilantro , Ammi , and lots of others . Interplant your Zea mays craw with these bloom . you may also purchase Trichogramma wasp eggs from an insectery . They can be released into the maize bandage , where they ’ll to on to parasitize corn earworm nut even before they incubate .
