Researchers are hoping corn earworms skipped health class in high school so they can curb their growth with a new idea after the insects became more resistant to the common insecticides farmers have used for decades… a virus, transmitted sexually across the population.
Adrian Card, a State Produce Specialist with CSU Extension explained that farmers on the Western Slope lost around half their sweet corn crop last year, in part due to the infestation of corn earworm, (which is actually a moth) and has been around farms in Colorado ever since they started growing the produce, but haven’t had a big of an issue with the pest until now.
“At its maximum, about 2300 acres of sweet corn (was lost),” Card explained. “That resulted in $2.7 million in losses.”
Why now? Card and fellow researchers believe it’s in part due to a resistance the bugs have built up against how we would normally kill them, and the possibility the worms are now sticking around in Colorado when they used to just migrate here every year.