Development of the Regional Multi-State Insect Trapping Network for Use in Issuing Scouting Alerts and Predicting Potential Field Crop Damage in the Heartland

The project will focus on four species of foliar feeders (armyworm, black cutworm, corn earworm, fall armyworm) and the stalk boring pests European corn borer and southwestern com borer. These species occur in the four states and threaten a large variety of crops including corn (field, pop, and sweet) cotton, grain sorghum, pasture and hay grasses, peppers (bell and hot) and wheat. Sex pheromones are available as commercial lures and data sets describing temperature dependent development are available. Data from the traps will be used to alert producers to potentially damaging pest outbreaks, warning them that crops need to be checked for infestations. This will enable them to make more accurate applications when needed and to reduce the potential for unneeded applications. Increasing the availability and usefulness of this information by the production sector can reduce potential human and environmental exposure while providing an economic benefit to the producer.