You Are Here: Management Updates 2002 Archive June 26, 2002

Date: June 26, 2002
Category: Insects
Subject: Armyworms in Field Corn

We have received reports of armyworms feeding on field corn in a couple fields in the Connecticut River valley. (The report came from Ruth Hazzard, in the Vegetable IPM program.) While numbers are not as high as they were in 2001, the caterpillars are causing damage in the field corn. We have not received any reports of caterpillar activity on turf - and it was just a year ago this week that the "explosion" peaked in eastern Massachusetts.

We suspect that some caterpillars survived the mild winter and got a head start this year - but normally the heavy infestations, such as we saw in 2001, occur after a massive invasion of armyworm moths, blown in from points south or west of New England. So far we have had no reports of such flights, so we still believe armyworm activity will not approach the biblical proportions observed last year.

- Submitted by: Dr. Pat Vittum