I monitor three different insect pests with pheromone traps to help make informed decisions about when to spray insecticides or take other actions for management. Trap data can be found on the Extension Entomology Vegetables Website. The longest-running is the corn earworm (Figure 1) trapping network. Purdue Meigs farm, in Tippecanoe County, is still catching moths in the double digits. Other locations throughout the state are reporting single digits and some zeroes. A reminder that if your sweetcorn is silking and the dent corn in your neighborhood is not there yet, you should be protecting your crop if the trap catches are 1 or more.
The squash vine borer (Figure 2) trapping is behind schedule, but the adults are out and active.
Tomato pinworm (Figure 3) is the other insect we have begun monitoring in high tunnel tomato production. While we are currently processing our first traps, I can confirm that the adults are active at many of the locations that participate in the network. Watch for evidence of leaf mines on your crop and remove them. If you are worried about high populations infesting fruit, you may want to apply an insecticide for protection. In the Midwest Vegetable Production Guide, you should navigate to tomatoes and caterpillar pests. Filter for greenhouses to get the most appropriate product recommendations.
Figure 1. CEW damage on sweetcorn (Photo by John Obermeyer).
Figure 2. Squash vine borer adult (Photo by John Obermeyer).
Figure 3. Tomato pinworm damage on a tomato leaf (Photo by Dan Egel).