After weeks of successive trap catches in the double digits, our recent catches have gone down. Be sure to check the CEW trapping website for updates daily. At this point in the season, when field corn is in the silking stage, the threat to sweet corn, and potentially hemp, goes down. The current action threshold is 10 moths in the trap per night. Spray decisions should be made based on the closest trap location. In the table online, if no value is entered, it means the trap has not been emptied. A zero will be present in the data table if the trap was checked and there were no moths present.
As field corn dries out and is no longer silking, the threat to flowering hemp and silking sweet corn goes back up. The trap catch threshold lowers to 1 moth per night. Closely monitor your crop and the surrounding environment to best understand the risk of corn earworm oviposition.
Figure 1: Adult CEW recovered in a trap.
Figure 2: Hartstack trap baited with a female pheromone lure at the Meigs Horticulture Farm.