Biorationals for Management of Lepidopteran Pests of Fresh Market Sweet Corn

Abstract

Much of the sweet corn in the Hudson Valley is treated by aircraft. Although this longstanding production practice is cost-effective and allows growers to treat relatively high numbers of acres per day, it is an increasingly controversial production practice. Aerial applications are highly visible and raise environmental and public health concerns in the minds of some who reside in proximity to treated fields. It is unlikely that the practice will change in the near future, but concerns might be lowered if conventional insecticides were replaced by compounds that are reduced-risk or biorational in origin and activity. We reasoned that if biorational insecticides were being sprayed instead of ‘hard’ insecticides, such as pyrethroids, aerial application might be more readily accepted. Over two seasons of field experimentation, the relative efficacies of present and near-future biorationals were determined in efforts to give them serious consideration for inclusion into NY management programs.