Corn Rootworm Monitoring Continues – Trap Participants Needed for 2023

Ontario needs corn rootworm trap participants, whether you’ve monitored traps in the past few years or not. Fields with a history of corn on corn are the preferred target. Any participants from last year are encouraged to use some of the same fields as last year, even if they rotated out of corn. This will help us see how rootworm populations are changing year to year. If the field was rotated out of corn, data will show how successful the rotation was at reducing rootworm populations. Anyone can join as long as they are willing to check and change the traps approximately once every seven days for 6 or more weeks. Data must be entered into the CRW Trap Network after each week so we can map how many beetles are caught in each trap, each day. It will also make it easier for us to recognize adult peak activity. 

Trapping is expected to begin in July. Traps are free, thanks to ABSTC and GFO funding. If you would like to participate, please contact abbigael.thompson@ontario.ca with the number of sites you plan to monitor. It would be greatly appreciated if participants could also include a mailing address to send supplies to, as well as a phone number. 

Using sticky traps to monitor for corn rootworm adults has been effective at identifying fields with potentially Bt resistant populations. It also enables the grower or rep to spot unexpected damage in the field while they are walking to each trap. Last year, 40% of the trap sites surpassed the CRW threshold of 2 beetles per trap per day, indicating likely resistance. These fields ranged from Chatham Kent to Hastings counties. More details on last year’s trapping results are available here: 2022 Ontario CRW Trap Network Highlights. 

More details about what the CRW trap monitoring involves can be found in this document: Adult Corn Rootworm Trapping Instructions