Corn Growers Encouraged To Watch For Pests

Northwest corn crops will benefit from the warmer weather in the forecast.  But with that increased growth comes the need to scout for a pests.  Tim Waters with WSU says they’ve received reports over the past couple of weeks of a new pest, specifically on the southern Columbia Basin.  While he wouldn’t go into the details of the pest, Waters said growers need to keep an eye on young plants dying off in the one to three leaf stage.

“But if you see early seedling stage sweet corn and the center of the corn is dying off, they call it dead heart, then it would be good to give me a call and I’d be glad to come out and take a look at that and see if we’ve got more of that insect out and about.  So, we’ve seen a couple of fields where we saw some damage and we want to keep an eye on that.”

Outside of the new pest, Waters said growers should watch for typical sweet corn pests.  He said growers should increase their scouting efforts for ear worm numbers.  And with the heat hear, growers scout for spider mites.

“If you see corn with some stressed out symptoms, with some flecking on the leaves, it’s a good thing to scout for mites.  Spider mites do increase in numbers as it gets warm, and also when we make excessive pesticide or insecticide applications for ear worm we tend to see more spider mites.”

If you have questions about pests in your corn field, contact Tim Waters directly:

404 W. Clark
Pasco, WA 99301

E-mail

509-545-3511