What's eating my corn

[DannyS1951]

I thought I would give our garden a bit of a go while my wife was away. I figured going the native American way with the three sisters; corn, beans and squash, but I can't get past the corn shooting before it's destroyed by a small brown grub that almost looks like a 0.5cm millipede. They just go right through the first bit of green on the shoots and are having a 70% success rate. This last week I have sprayed the area with a local general-purpose garden insecticide three times, but I'm still waking up to the shoots toppled over. (I'm not going to worry about being organic.)

I didn't really turn the earth after pulling the weeds, but laid newspaper and rice straw over it. I then made holes filled with a mix of compost and dried cow manure to plant in. What have I done wrong?

Thanks for any help.

[slapout]

Sounds like cut worm. I use to go to a friend who had a commercial spray plane, He gave me a liquid that mixed with water about 25 to 1 did a real trick on the little critters. Take a few into the local pesticide store and see what they recommend, then try it out on your examples. It works quick. I just cannot recall the name of the stuff he gave me. old age is hell.

[DannyS1951]

Sounds like cut worm. I use to go to a friend who had a commercial spray plane, He gave me a liquid that mixed with water about 25 to 1 did a real trick on the little critters. Take a few into the local pesticide store and see what they recommend, then try it out on your examples. It works quick. I just cannot recall the name of the stuff he gave me. old age is hell.

Thanks for the reply. I will get one. I don't remember the Mrs having this problem last year. I wonder if i bought them in with the rice straw.

[DannyS1951]

Here's the bugs that are eating my corn. The biggest is just over 1cm. They move fairly fast. Anyone know what they are, or how to get rid of them. Sprayed three times but they are still winning.

[DannyS1951]

Changed the pesticide to this.

Diethyl (Dimethoxyphosphinothioylthio)Succinate

Seems to be working.

[slapout]

glad you found something that works. The picture is not army worm, by the way. Not sure what their common name is.

I used top keep a bag of severn powder handy during gardening time.as my garden used to attract every harmful bug known to mankind and some not know.. I just got use to feeding natures herbivores and took the left overs.

The crows used to be my biggest problem at pecan time. But a few days with the 12 guage from sun up to sun down seem to discourge them. They would take the whole crop from a tree in a couple days.

[kickstart]

Asked the misses she said they are "non"หนอน ,In Thai, or to us caterpillar's, larvae from a moth ,which one I can not tell,problem is there are lots of "non's" in Thailand,look at ...agriqua.doae.go.th/plantclinic/plant/sunflower/com....... there are photo]s of a lot of common insects or type หนอนข้าวโพด

Very unlikely they came with the rice straw.

Hope this helps.

Yours Reg.

KS

[DannyS1951]

Asked the misses she said they are "non"หนอน ,In Thai, or to us caterpillar's, larvae from a moth ,which one I can not tell,problem is there are lots of "non's" in Thailand,look at ...agriqua.doae.go.th/plantclinic/plant/sunflower/com....... there are photo]s of a lot of common insects or type หนอนข้าวโพด

Very unlikely they came with the rice straw.

Hope this helps.

Yours Reg.

KS

Thanks Reg

I seem to be on top of them now. I suspected the rice straw but I found them in the weeds where I hadn't used the straw yet. Doesn't mean the didn't migrate from the straw of course, but I too suspect we already had them.

Edited July 18, 2013 by DannyS1951