Went out to our farm this Saturday and did some walking through the corn. This is 65 day corn that was planted on July 10th after we lost our first crop due to flooding. At first appearance all looks good from afar, but as I got into the rows I noticed about 40% of the plants looked like this. Had our spray guy come out and take a look and they are there this morning spraying some pesticides. Here are some pics of the bugs we saw on these plants. What are they and which ones do you think were doing the damage? We also saw some Lady Bugs and Spotted Cucumber Beetles. My other question is will any of these plants survive? There is plenty of green growth on them. Would it help to spray some liquid nitrogen on them to help them recover? Is there anything else we can do to help these survive? This corn is just for the ducks, none of it will be harvested. If it isn't salvageable I was thinking about broadcasting some Jap Millet but I feel like we are getting late for that.
Dam that looks bad, I think I’d go with the Jap millet. I don’t think your corn is going to make it even if you sprayed and killed the bugs.
I agree with Clayton, looks like army worms. I'm assuming you didn't plant BT traited corn seed? It's a must when planting late or the bugs will eat it up. It's more expensive but you are throwing your time and money away if you plant late corn that doesn't have the BT trait. You might make a little corn there if you can kill what's eating it, if not, it won't make anything. If you do plant Jap millet, the armyworms love it too, so keep a close watch on your plot and spray for them if you see sign of them.
Too little too late for the corn. The worms do their damage in the whorl (the rolled up leaf before it emerges) and are protected from spray inside that leaf. If you look, it wouldn't be surprised to see some holes in the stalk with frass (worm poo) coming out. That would be corn borers. The beetles might also signal a bad case of root worms, there are three species of Diabrotica beetles, the cucumber beetle is one (also known as southern corn root worm), the western corn root worm, and the northern corn rootworm. All have larvae that destroy corn roots. Like others have said - maybe time for some jap millet and some proactive pesticide
We used Canamaize CM 533 RR that we had left over from last year. Not sure if it is treated or not but I will definitely find out before we use it again. I have 10 acres of Jap Millet adjacent to the corn and didn't see any damage in it yet but they did not spray that today so it could be an issue. We will probably broadcast some Jap Millet regardless and then spray over the top of it with some Ammonium Sulphate to give it all a little boost. If it isn't one thing its another this year!!
Army worms can destroy a millet field in no time. Watch daily!!!!!! Watch for flocks of crows in the field. They often key in on armyworm concentrations.
I would leave the corn you have planted and just broadcast millet in between rows. Dirty corn as they call it. I would not spend a pile on nitrogen but it might help the corn finish a little and won’t hurt the millet you broadcast in the rows. Good luck PS never heard of the trait referred to above but will put that in my back pocket for future reference.
By the way these army worms must be much more common south of the mason dixon line? Never hear about them up here or i may have just missed it???
Never had issues with armyworms here in TN until around 5-6 years ago. Now they are an annual problem. I bet they will continue to move farther north as the weather patterns continue to change.