Integrated Crop Management is published by the Department of Entomology , Iowa State University , Ames, Iowa.
Black cutworm is a pest of corn in Iowa, occasionally causing economic loss.
Cooperators around Iowa assist Iowa State University integrated pest management staff in determining when black cutworm adults arrive from overwintering sites near the Gulf Coast. A network of pheromone traps shows that two major black cutworm flights occurred in Iowa this spring, the first on April 14 and the second on April 18-20. Both flights were reported across the entire state. Trap data provide us with a key first step in black cutworm management because it lets us know when the moths arrive and females lay eggs. We then track degree day accumulations to calculate when black cutworm larvae will reach a size that they can start cutting corn.