Given the recent controversy surrounding the proposed legislative bans on some pesticides in NY, Cornell researchers and extension specialists are working to provide necessary data on the efficacy, usefulness and perceived need for these products in our agricultural systems.  To do this, we need your help with identifying, documenting and quantifying losses to early season pests, such as seedcorn maggot and wireworm in your corn and soybean fields.

Seed Corn Maggot

A collaborative effort between the NYS Integrated Pest Management program and Cornell Cooperative Extension field crop specialists will begin in 2020 with the goal of monitoring for and documenting losses to pests that the neonic seed treatments are intended to protect against.  Given the sporadic distribution of damage caused by seedcorn maggot and wireworm, it can be challenging to quantify losses to these pests in research plots alone.  Therefore, we need assistance from farmers, crop consultants, agribusiness associates, and crop insurance claim adjusters to report fields with damage from these pests across NY State.

Your valuable input would require nothing more than a phone call or email to your local field crops extension specialist to report the specific location of damage soon after planting, while pests are still active and can be confirmed (by V2 stage).  The extension specialist will then visit the field to confirm pest activity, and may conduct plant stand counts to estimate potential yield losses.  Location and farm identity will remain anonymous, as we are only interested in quantifying losses across NYS, not where they occur.

Claims on the value (or lack thereof) of these insecticide seed treatments in NY field crop production cannot be validated or quantified without this sort of data, and we can’t obtain this statewide data without your assistance.  Therefore, whether you grow corn for silage or grain (or even sweet corn), soybean or dry beans, conventionally or organically, we need to hear from you!  Please refer to the following list of specialists to contact in your region to report damage from seedcorn maggot or wireworm in your fields this spring:

Mike Stanyard (NWNY CCE) – mjs88@cornell.edu, 585-764-8452

Jodi Putman (NWNY CCE) – jll347@cornell.edu, 585-991-5437

Jaime Cummings (statewide, NYS IPM) – jc2246@cornell.edu, 607-255-1747

Josh Putman (SWNY CCE) – jap473@cornell.edu, 716-490-5572

Janice Degni (SCNY CCE) – jgd3@cornell.edu, 607-391-2660, x414

Ron Kuck (Cayuga Co. CCE) – rak76@cornell.edu, 315-255-1183, x242

Jeff Miller (Oneida Co. CCE) – jjm14@cornell.edu, 315-736-3394, x120

Kevin Ganoe (CNY CCE) – khg2@cornell.edu, 315-866-7920, x230

Aaron Gabriel (ENY CCE) – adg12@cornell.edu, 518-380-1496

Ken Wise (ENY, NYS IPM) – klw24@cornell.edu, 845-677-8223

Christian Malsatzki (SENY CCE) – cpm78@cornell.edu, 845-340-3990

Joe Lawrence (statewide, PRO Dairy) – jrl65@cornell.edu, 315-778-4814

Mike Hunter (NNY CCE) – meh27@cornell.edu, 315-788-8450, x266

Kitty O’Neil (NNY CCE) – kao32@cornell.edu, 315-854-1218

Elson Shields (Cornell Field Crops Entomologist) – es28@cornell.edu, 607-255-8428