One inexpensive practice is crop rotation. Crop rotation can be a valuable tool to manage certain insect pests in field and vegetable crops. This winter, corn growers who have enough land should plan on how to rotate corn with other crops. Most field and vegetable farmers are well aware of the benefits of rotation with disease management. But many may not be aware of the benefits of rotation on certain insect species.
Rotation is particularly effective against some soil species that overwinter in immature stages.
These individuals lack the ability to move to new fields. Western and northern corn rootworms are two destructive pests that can easily be managed with crop rotation. Both of these species overwinter as eggs in the soil of fields that were planted in corn the previous year. That's because the eggs are only laid around the bases of corn plants. When the eggs hatch in the late spring, the young larvae can only move a short distance, about 18 inches, in order to find corn roots.