If You Build It, Will They Come? Dwindling bee numbers is a problem. The question is not should we protect pollinators and create habitat, but how? What’s the best method? The most economical? The best bee habitats—made up of plants of varying sizes and bloom times—are easy on the eye. They’re also excellent real estate…Continue Reading Our 2018-2019 Annual Report: #5 Pollinator Habitat, and NEWA
North Country Cutworm Crusader Mike Hunter receives an EXCELLENCE IN IPM Award
Press Release by Mariah Courtney Mottley. Media contact: Jaime Cummings Mike Hunter, a field crops specialist in the Cornell Cooperative Extension North Country Regional Ag Team, received an Excellence in Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Award from the New York State Integrated Pest Management Program (NYSIPM) at Cornell University’s Aurora Farm Field Day. Hunter was…Continue Reading North Country Cutworm Crusader Mike Hunter receives an EXCELLENCE IN IPM Award
Western Bean Cutworm Population Boom
This post is based on an article written for Cornell’s WHAT’S CROPPING UP blog by Ken Wise (NYS IPM) and Mike Hunter (CCE North Country Regional Ag Team) with editing by NYS IPM’s Jaime Cummings and Marion Zuefle. Read the full article here Western bean cutworm (Striacosta albicosta) aka WBC was first discovered in…Continue Reading Western Bean Cutworm Population Boom
Did You Notice More Worms in Your Sweet Corn This Fall?
Marion Zuefle, Vegetable IPM Extension Area Educator, authors today’s post. She works out of the NYSIPM Program office at Cornell AgriTech in Geneva, NY. Corn earworm, one of the major insect pests of sweet corn, had a banner year in 2018. Every year sweet corn growers battle diseases, weeds, and insects that can make their crop…Continue Reading Did You Notice More Worms in Your Sweet Corn This Fall?
35,500 western bean cutworms later, it’s a record year for IPM in corn
Got a sweet tooth for sweetcorn? You’re in good company. So should you hear rumors on the wind about wormy sweetcorn — or field corn or dry beans (the kind you put in your soup kettle) and you’re curious about what’s behind them, here’s the scoop: The western bean cutworm (just call it “WBC”), a…Continue Reading 35,500 western bean cutworms later, it’s a record year for IPM in corn
The Cutworms Are Coming
Western bean cutworm — call it WBC for short — is a new pest to us, though farmers in the Midwest and Canada have been battling it for several years. Since field corn contributes $685 million to New York’s economy while sweet corn rings in at $68 million, we can’t take this threat lightly. These…Continue Reading The Cutworms Are Coming
Eastward Ho!
Critters that did little damage before agriculture replaced natural ecosystems can prove tough customers when provided easy access to hundreds of thousands of acres of their favorite food. Even so, sometimes such pests are content to stay on their home turf until … until …. The western bean cutworm (WBC for short) is a High…Continue Reading Eastward Ho!