2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
The corn stalk moth is especially harmful in the western forest-steppe and in the north of the steppe zone. Caterpillars of this pest damage sunflowers, hops, corn, millet and hemp, and also develop on thick stems of weeds. In total, they are capable of damaging up to one hundred and fifty species of vegetation. The ears, panicles and stalks of growing crops especially suffer from their harmful activity. The corn stalk moth can develop in one, two, or three generations, so the fight against it sometimes gives a lot of trouble
Meet the pest
The corn stalk moth is a pest butterfly ranging in size from 26 to 32 mm. In males, brownish-brown front wings along the outer edges are equipped with light wide toothed stripes, and closer to the middle of the front edges they have dark spots. And in females, the front wings are slightly lighter than in males - as a rule, they are light brown or white-yellow.
The eggs of corn stalk moths are cream colored and range in size from 0.3 to 0.5 mm. Caterpillars, growing up to 20 - 25 mm in length, have a grayish-yellow color with a slight reddish tinge. They have longitudinal stripes on their backs, and the necks and heads of the parasites are painted in brownish tones. The size of the yellow-brownish pupae is about 18 - 20 mm, and their bodies are equipped with small hook-shaped spines.
Overwintering of caterpillars mainly takes place in the stalks of vegetation damaged by them. Approximately in mid-May or early June, harmful parasites pupate. The start of summer of butterflies coincides in time with the beginning of throwing out of its dense panicles by corn. Females at the same time begin to lay eggs, and they lay them in heaps of fifteen to twenty pieces. And eggs are placed mainly on the lower sides of the leaves. The duration of the egg stage is about 3-14 days.
The hatched voracious caterpillars immediately begin to settle in growing crops, trying to choose protected places - they often settle under the wraps of heads of cabbage, in the axils of leaves, etc. When starting to feed, the caterpillars gnaw into the middle of the stalks. And after completing it, the pests remain for the winter in the stems damaged by them. In the southern regions, a certain part of the harmful caterpillars immediately pupate, and with the onset of August-September, the development of the second generation is already noted. The average life span of caterpillars is from 13 to 58 days.
If the voracious caterpillars get to the grains on the cob, then not only the grain yield will decrease, but also its quality. And the stems damaged by them dry out rather quickly and subsequently often break off. In addition, in this case, the susceptibility of the ears to attacks of such ailments as gray rot and fusarium is noticeably increased, which will certainly entail new troubles.
Abrupt changes in the number of corn stalk moths are caused by changes in weather conditions: dry weather significantly limits their reproduction, and an impressive amount of precipitation, on the contrary, favors this process.
How to fight
When growing corn and a number of other crops, it is necessary to carefully monitor the appearance of thick-stemmed weeds in the areas and immediately destroy it. Corn should be harvested in a timely manner - as a rule, they try to harvest at the lowest possible cut. Deep winter plowing, followed by preliminary stubble cultivation with a harrow, will also serve well.
If there are especially a lot of caterpillars on the site, they switch to spraying with insecticides. A drug such as "Karate Zeon" has proven itself especially well in this matter. And on corn crops, the drug "Sharpei" is often used.
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