Corn rootworm is considered the most economically challenging pest nationwide. Due to the life cycle of the corn rootworms, adults lay eggs at the base of the corn plant in one season and the larvae are there at the beginning of the next growing season to feed on corn roots. Syngenta Head of Agronomy Andy Heggenstaller says this is a multi-year problem. “You have this multi-year corn pest; what happens in one year have large ramifications for the challenges seen next year.” Traits are the base of a corn rootworm control strategy. Rotating to another crop can also break the lifecycle of the pest. There is the potential for very high populations of corn rootworm. “We observed very high pressure this year. We had very high beetle counts recorded and if we have a situation where it is dry in June, I think the potential for the larval population that feed on the corn roots to be among the greatest risks we’ve seen in recent years.”
