ADDRESSING EVOLVING CORN EARWORM MANAGEMENT CHALLENGES IN SWEET CORN GROWN IN THE EASTERN US

This project aims to improve our knowledge of corn earworm spatiotemporal population patterns, delivering risk maps and models that help to anticipate and avoid crop loss, corn earworm resistance management recommendations, best practices for monitoring, dynamic thresholds, and economical management programs that mitigate risks to human health, natural enemies, and pollinators.Our specific project objectives are as follows:1. Characterize changes in population patterns in response to climate and insecticides1.1 Understand changing spatiotemporal population dynamics1.2 Monitor resistance to plant incorporated Bt toxins and foliar insecticides2. Optimize decision support systems and IPM programs2.1 Optimize corn earworm captures for monitoring2.2 Create dynamic threshold recommendations and forecast corn earworm pressure2.3 Improve sustainable pest management programs3. Develop system-based costs and returns estimates for sweet corn3.1 Characterize production inputs and impact of corn earworm3.2 Determine best management practice returns on investment4. Promote adoption of cost-effective best management practices4.1 Deliver user-friendly products, demonstrate best practices on-farm, and assess impact4.2 Qualitative analysis to assess value of Extension efforts