it infests sorghums, alfaifa, peanuts, tobacco, vetch, soybeans, 
cotton, tomatoes, and other vegetable crops. 
Larvae of the corn earworm feed on the buds or central shoots 
of young corn plants, stunting them and reducing the yield. Later 
the worms go down through the silks of the ears and destroy many 
of the kernels. Sometimes they chew off the silks and prevent 
pollination. Their feeding in the ears also allows the entrance 
of molds, which increase the total damage. 
During the period 19):2=-51 the corn earworm caused an annual loss 
of $19,454,000 to field corn, and $3,919,373 to sweet corn. Suffi- 
cient information is not available to make estimates of lossas by 
this insect to other crops. 
On field corn insecticides have not yet provad practical for con- 
trol. of the earworm. Injury can be reduced, however, by zrowing 
strains with long, tight husks and, when possible, by plantine 
hybrids that possass some earworm resistance. On the other hand, 
sweet corn can be protected by spraying with an insecticide, With 
such control this crop can now be grown profitably in Florida and 
Texas in areas where previously the ears were so severely injured 
that they could not be marketed. Florida's present $19 million 
sweet corn industry depends on control of the corn earworm with 
insecticides. Several of the newer varietiss of sweet corn possess 
considerable earworm resistance. 
The European corn borer has becom one of the most injurious 
enemies of field and sweet corn in the United States. Since it 
was discovered in Massachusetts and New York in 1917, it has spread 
westward, and by 1952 it had infested the entire Corn Belt, reached 
the eastarn edges of Colorado and Montana, and had dispersed south- 
ward as far as northeastern Oklahoma, Arkansas, northern Mississippi, 
Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina, 
In its attack on fieli corn, the European corn borer reduces the 
yield and increases the cost of harvesting by causing broken stalks, 
poor ear development, and dropped ears. When it infests sweet corm 
the ears are often unmarketable, and costs of processing infested 
ears in the canning factory are greatly increased. In certain areas 
in years of heavy borer infestation, sweet corn cannot be grown 
profitably unless insecticides are applied. 
The European corn borer caused an annual loss of 58,808,000 bushels 
of field corn, valued at $80,734,710, during the period 19)2—51. 
Maximum damage occurred in 1949, when the loss amounted to 313,819,000 
bushels worth $39,635,000. The annual loss to sweet corn was 
$3,847,157, or approximately percent of the total loss to both 
field and sweet corn. 
The European corn borer can be controlled with an insecticide. One 
or two applications are needed on heavily infested field corn, and 
