A comprehensive review of biological control agents imported in the first half of the 1900s was published by Baker et al. Lydella thompsoni Eriborus terebrans Macrocentris grandii Macrocentris grandii adult Several microbial disease agents are known from corn borer populations. The common fungi Beauveria bassiana and Metarhizium anisopliae are sometimes observed, especially in overwintering larvae. It creates chronic, debilitating infections that reduce longevity and fecundity of adults, and reduces survival of larvae that are under environmental stress. The factor that best accounted for population trends was survival of adults.
Weather There are many reports that weather influences European corn borer survival.
Heavy precipitation during egg hatch, for example, is sometimes given as an important mortality factor. Low humidity, low nighttime temperatures, and heavy rain and wind are detrimental to moth survival and oviposition. Host Plants European corn borer has a very wide host range, attacking practically all robust herbaceous plants with a stem large enough for the larvae to enter. However, the eastern strain accounts for most of the wide host range, the western strain feeding primarily on corn. In North Carolina, for example, potato is more attractive than corn at peak emergence of the first moth flight, and more heavily damaged.