Earworms
- Earworms are also called Tomato Fruit Worms or Cotton Bollworms. They love corn, tomatoes, potatoes, beans, peas, peppers and squash.
- In their larva stage they look like rusty red capsules. They pupate into 1½ inch long (3 cm) caterpillars usually green or white but sometimes light yellow, brown or reddish all with dark stripes down each side.
- They mature into greenish-gray and brown moths with black dots which will then lay off-white, ribbed eggs.
- Earworm pupae survive over the winter in the
 .
- To suffocate earworms apply mineral oil to the corn silks once they have withered and begun to turn brown.
- Squirt about ½ of an eyedropperful of the oil on each small ear and ¾ on the large ones.
- You can add a little powdered red pepper to the mineral oil but wear rubber gloves because red pepper can sting if you get it on your skin.
- Make 2 follow-up applications spaced a week apart to the affected plants.
- Wash your corn well when you harvest it and boil it well before you eat it.
bugs
caring
|
