Researchers have discovered another crop pest that is resistant to the main treatment tool available to farmers.
Dr. Emily Bick with the University of Wisconsin tells Brownfield some corn earworms have developed a resistance to pyrethroids and it’s time to start looking for alternative tools. “This corn earworm has actually gone through and hybridized with a European pest called old world bollworm.”
Bick says the hybrid is more of a problem with sweet corn than field corn and is hard to stop. “My lab teamed up with a USDA ARS scientist out of Iowa, Brad Coates. Brad tested some sites for us, saw a couple of insects and unfortunately had between 87.4 and 91 percent positive resistance.”
Bick says the hybrid earworm has been found in certain areas, so many farmers will still have good control using pyrethroids. More testing for the resistant pests will take place next growing season.
Bick says the resistant earworm is widespread in Florida, Colorado, and has now been detected in parts of Iowa and southern Wisconsin. She spoke to Brownfield during the Badger Crop Update meeting in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
