Have you really lived, if you haven’t had the enjoyable experience of trying to change sticky traps while rootworm beetles crawl down your shirt? Or had the thrill of tripping over goosenecked plants while you’re looking ahead to find your next trap down the corn row? Well, if that sounds thrilling (or even if it doesn’t), we want your help! Thanks to GFO and ABSTC, we still have some free corn rootworm sticky traps to give away this year to any interested trap participants, new or experienced. Fields with a history of corn on corn and repeated CRW Bt hybrid use are the preferred target sites. We would especially like to see some increased participation from Central and Eastern Ontario, though sites from anywhere across the province are welcome.
Any participants from the previous years are encouraged to use some of the same fields again so we can compare CRW levels to previous years, but this is not mandatory. 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. If you would like to participate, please contact my summer research assistant, Aviva Fournie (aviva.fournie@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. Rootworm populations were lower last year than in 2022 but are expected to be a higher risk this year in 2024, given the mild winters and warmer spring.
More details about what the CRW trap monitoring involves can be found in this document: Adult Corn Rootworm Trapping Instructions