Onstad is pioneering applications of numerical modeling and analysis methods to the study of agricultural insect pests to evaluate biological control options. Onstad believes computational models will soon play a key role in reducing chemical pesticide use through biological controls. Onstad's model of the European corn borer has provided insights into the ecological factors that influence pest development, has helped predict how the population distributes itself when infesting a field, and has provided a means of evaluating biological controls such as disease and parasitic insects. It also establishes a framework for studying other insect pests such as the gypsy moth. The European corn borer dominated conversation among Midwest farmers last summer as an unusually severe outbreak had farmers scouting fields to see if control measures were needed.
Corn borers complete at least two generations each summer.
They inflict crop losses by chewing through the corn stalk or ear base causing the ear to fall prior to harvest and damage corn by other means. Pesticides are applied to fields where crop loss will substantially exceed treatment cost, but timing is critical and farmers often just accept the loss. Farmers and environmentalists alike would prefer a nonchemical solution. But if you multiplied those losses across the Midwest, the combined amount is probably quite large. So control is needed, but it has to be more cost-effective.