Bill Cissel, Extension Agent – Integrated Pest Management; bcissel@udel.edu
With corn starting to pop up in rows, keep an eye out for slug feeding injury. Yea, that’s right, SLUGS. Even though the current weather has been hot and dry, slugs are active at night and can still cause damage. Probably the biggest impact the weather has in helping with slugs is that corn, and soybeans for that matter, grow rapidly when we have plenty of sun and heat.
So, this brings us to the question, “To treat or not to treat”?
If the corn seedlings in your field all looked like the photo above, and given the current weather forecast, do you apply a slug bait? The answer to this is not simple and there is no substitute for experience when determining if your corn will “out compete” the slugs. I will follow the plant in the photo for several weeks and we will see together if it is able to outgrow the slug damage.
What would you do if this were your field? Given the current weather forecast, would you treat this field with a slug bait?
Click on the link below and check YES or NO: