By Wayne Mattingly Over the last several days, several reports of major cutworm infestation and damage in corn fields in western Tennessee and Alabama have been a good signal to Kentucky corn producers to watch your corn very carefully over the next few weeks. Considerable damage can be done over a short period of time, particularly during the cool weather, as corn is growing more slowly and cutworms continue to feed on small seedlings. Preventive controls may be all the control that is needed in some situations, but with excessive cutworm infestations, preventive controls may not be sufficient.
Significant damage can still occur in treated fields if cutworm populations are excessive.
Fields should be scouted, even if they have had a preventive treatment. The best strategy will be to scout fields and use rescue treatments as necessary. The worst strategy will be to do nothing and leave cutworm losses to chance. Judging by what has been observed to our south, this is the year that it may pay to monitor carefully for this corn pest. One method of applying some tobacco herbicides is by use of impregnation onto dry fertilizer blends.