David Owens, Extension Entomologist, owensd@udel.edu
Sweet Corn
Thursday was our last trapping day of the 2022 season. Many thanks to Dick Monaco for faithfully checking traps this season and to USDA-NIFA’s CPPM program for partially funding this effort. Thanks also to Morgan Malone for uploading data to our website: https://agdev.anr.udel.edu/trap/trap.php.
Moth trap counts have gradually decreased across most locations, although this could be an artifact of the surrounding crop condition around most of our traps. Trap counts are as follows:
| Trap Location | BLT – CEW | Pheromone CEW |
| 3 nights total catch | ||
| Dover | 6 | 53 |
| Harrington | 1 | 7 |
| Milford | 3 | 59 |
| Rising Sun | 8 | 93 |
| Wyoming | 4 | 18 |
| Bridgeville | 1 | 14 |
| Concord | 4 | 44 |
| Georgetown | — | 9 |
| Greenwood | 1 | 5 |
| Laurel | 4 | 33 |
| Seaford | 1 | — |
Cole Crops
We finally have picked up a single cabbage looper in cabbage plots in Dover. Otherwise, the main cole crop pests currently active are imported cabbage worm (goodbye my garden kale), diamondback moth, harlequin bug, and aphids. Several worm materials (Torac, diamides) have good efficacy on aphids, and pyrethroids have good efficacy on imported cabbageworm and stink bug, but not diamondback moth. Interestingly, in some of our plots, parasitic wasps have destroyed a lot of diamondback moth caterpillars. Remember to rotate among modes of action, especially if diamondback moth is in the mix.
Pumpkins
With pumpkin harvest upon us, pay attention to the lifting pumpkins carefully or using a pair of work gloves. A note came in earlier this week of substantial numbers of widow spiders seeking refuge under pumpkins in New Jersey. I occasionally run into this in my watermelon plots at Carvel and my home pumpkin patch. Widow spiders are going to hide near the ground spot or if there is a cavity located there from the end of the blossom.