DlB—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, November 8,1980
Key to cutworm control may be in com plants
NEWARK, Del. - The
most visible spokesmen for
Integrated Pest
Management in Delaware
are the county agents and
pest management
specialists of the Delaware
Extension Service. But their
pest management recom
mendations are based on
extensive research into non
chemical as well as
chemical controls by an
equally important group, the
entomology and insect
ecology researchers of the
Delaware Agricultural
Experiment Station.
John Reese’s current work
with cutworms is a good case
in point.
The black cutworm is a
major pest of com which
also attacks over 70 other
Grain marketing
foresees hog-tied
ST. LOUIS, Mo. A gram
company official said
Thursday that increased
government involvement in
agricultural business could
trigger a “gndlock” - a
regulatory traffic snarl
threatening the existence of
companies unable or un
willing to cope.
Clarence Palmby, vice
president of Continental
Gram Company, told a
marketing seminar of the
American Feed Manufac
turers Association here that
“over-regulation is a
growing concern to every
industry and every business
established and financed to
earn a satisfactory return on
investment.”
Attacking short-sighted
government policymaking
and resultant flawed
legislation, Palmby cited the
plan whereby com to be used
for gasohol would be made
available, under certain
conditions, to such
manufacturers at
preferential prices.
Calling this concept
“disruptive to established
marketing, transporting and
handling mechanisms”, he
asked: “Why not let the com
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crop plants. Although this
pest is sporadic in Delaware,
there’s a good chance we’ll
be seeing more of it in the
future as more fanners turn
to notillage, according to
Delaware extension pest
management specialist
Mark Graustem.
Recent doubts cast upon
the safety of Toxaphene, one
of the most frequently used
chemicals in cutworm
control, make non-chemical
controls for this pest all the
more desirable.
Reese said he feels the key
to non-chemical control for
cutworms may be found in
the corn plants themselves.
“If every plant were
totally susceptible to every
insect,” Reese explains,
“there would be no plants by
now. All plants probably
come from the market
place?”
In reviewing upcoming
legislative proposals,
Palmby was critical of the
suggestion that production
costs be included m farm
programs to be considered.
He said inclusion of the
cost of production principle
would assign the U.S.
Department of Agriculture a
“task that cannot be done
with any degree of ac
curacy.”
Palmby argued that
producers benefit most when
allowed to use their own
judgment in forward
planning.
“They always suffer,” he
added, “sometimes after a
delay of several years, if
they are offered benefits tied
to a historical past.”
He noted the price of com
in this country and the world
has not kept pace with most
other traded commodiites
such as petroleum, silver
and gold, inviting in
tercession by the “quick
fixers.”
“I am aware of loud voices
from quarters uninformed
on either the history or the
sensitivity of the corn
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have built-in mechanisms to
protect themselves against
certain insects. We need
much more information
about these mechanisms. ”
It’s a well established fact
that black Cutworms can
hurt corn plants, but Reese
and his graduate student
Merry Field have been
demonstrating that certain
com lines can be equally bad
for the cutworms’ health.
In the laboratory Reese
has been allowing cutworm
larvae to infest corn
seedlings of different
breeding lines. At the end or
the experimental penod
when he examines the
cutworms, he finds that
some have grown well and
others have grown poorly.
Reese is trying to identify
official
industry
pricing structure,” he said.
He sees as a plus the fact
that the United States has
both the ability to produce
and the financial and
technological wherewithal to
carry inventory.
“Many of our largest
importing customer coun
tries buy on a ‘hand-to
mouth’ basis. This being the
case, we should
acknowledge and exploit the
fact that domestic
carryovers can be dollar
earners,” he continued.
“To adopt a policy any less
ambitious WOUld certainly
jeopardize our present price
discovery system.”
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the mechanisms in certain
corn breeding lines that slow
down the cutworms’ growth,
thereby making the insect
more susceptible to
parasites and predators.
He’s working with Ex
periment Station researcher
Jim Hawk to breed these
mechanisms into new com
varieties along with such
other desirable charac
teristics as drought
resistance and high yield.
Identifying tHF
mechanisms is challenging
because they can take
several forms.
One corn line may contain
a chemical that is slightly
toxic to cutworms, while
another may have such a
high fiber content that the
worms would eat the plants
without obtaining enough
nutrition to survive.
At present the only way to
lode for these mechanisms is
through trial and error or
process of elimination
exposing each individual
com line to the cutworms
and waiting to see what
happens.
But Reese is working to
develop a more efficient,
standardized technique for
pinpointing the mechanisms
that interfere with cutworm
growth. Eventually he hopes
to be able to tell if a plant
contains such a mechanism
by analyzing a sample of the
plant tissue itself.
This way he would be able
to evaluate greater numbers
of plants, thus approaching
the goal of deliberately and
foresightedly designing
insect resistant plants.
Selective breeding for
cutworm resistance might
then proceed much faster.
Graustein feels Reese’s
work shows great promise
for Integrated Pesl
Management The specialist
says he’s enthusiastic about
any approach to pest
management that relies or
nature’s own mechanisms,
thereby helping growers cut
back on the need for
chemicals.