Corn earworms moreover chew tomato end result from the blossom end, eat into bean pods, and nibble lettuce. Earworms moreover attacks okra and squash.
The corn earworm is a white, green, brown, or red caterpillar with spines. It is about 1½ long. The adult is a brown moth.
Regulate earworms attacking corn by way of striking 1 to 5 drops of vegetable oil or mineral oil at the base of the silks inside each growing husk. The oil will suffocate the worms.
Use oil on corn very best after the silks have begun to turn brown. The silks turn brown after pollination. A single silk will change into a single kernel of corn once it is pollinated. When an ear of corn does no longer fill with kernels it is most ceaselessly as a result of poor pollination.
Different ways to keep watch over corn earworms:
- Draw corn husks closed with a rubber band so that earworms can’t enter. Do this after the silks emerge.
- Attract to the garden in point of fact useful insects any such green lacewings and parasitic wasps—braconid, chalcid, ichneumonid, and trichogramma—which attack earworms. Annual crops comparable to alyssum and cosmos and perennial crops comparable to yarrow and coneflowers all attract beneficials.
- Plant corn cultivars that have tightly wrapped husks which exclude earworms. Resistant types include Aristogold, Calumet, Country Gentleman, Iona, Seneca, Chief, Senecat Scout, Silver Cross Bantam, Staygold, and Victory Golden.
- Spray or dust your crop with BT or Spinosad. The ones natural pesticides can be used once earworms have already crawled into ears.
