However, it does survive the winter in southern New Jersey, the Delmarva, and southern Illinois. Overwintering is more successful as you travel south, and winter temperatures are warmer. In recent years, we have seen low densities of CEW earlier in the field season, which may reflect some overwintering in southeastern Pennsylvania. The corn earworm is a moth, in the insect family Noctuidae. It is a good flyer, and able to move long distances.
Adults emerge in the spring.
They are about to 1 inch in length, tan to buff-colored, sometimes with some olive shading, with a wavy darker band near the edge of the wings of younger specimens. The eyes have a distinctive serpentine green reflection when held up to sunlight in live specimens. A darker brown spot is located about midway along the outer edge of the front wings. They can be caught up in winds and storms, and deposited with the weather patterns. Females are strongly attracted to fresh silks, where they lay the eggs individually directly on the silk.