Monitoring and Management Of all our corn pests, the one that is most easily monitored is the corn earworm. Blacklight traps capture males and females, and traps baited with the proper sex pheromone capture only males. Traps are made from heavy wire hardware cloth, or purchased from Gempler s. Pheromone lures can be purchased from Great Lakes IPM or Gempler s. For corn earworm, the lures made by Hercon have worked well in our area.
Place traps away from trees or wooded areas.
Handle the lures to minimize contamination by using forceps or surgical gloves, or at least preventing the same hand from handling lures for different insect species. Also, keep the lures cool, in the refrigerator or freezer, while in storage. Contact your Extension agent for details on setting up the traps at your farm. Since much of the CEW population builds as populations move from the south, it makes sense to look at the densities from a regional viewpoint. It is easier to view these data as a map, and we are developing that capability as a web site.