Although corn is the preferred host, this pest is very destructive to cotton. It is also found occasionally on such wild hosts as toadflax. Although corn is the preferred host, this pest is very destructive to cotton. The major agronomic hosts of the tobacco budworm are tobacco and cotton, the former being the preferred host. Budworms have been collected from soybeans but economic loss has not been documented.
First instars feed on the epidermis of tender plant terminals.
Later instars, however, move into squares, blooms, buds , and bolls . They not only feed superficially but also burrow into young bolls and squares, often hollowing them and facilitating the introduction of pathogens. Diapausing pupae occur in August or September. Each female lays an average of 1,000 eggs, which usually hatch within 2 to 5 days. In spring and early summer when the overwintering generation moths emerge, no single species of plant is abundant or desirable enough to receive the majority of eggs.