The number of adult western bean cutworms that were caught increased dramatically over the last week (see figure). Our previous years of trapping have shown that our hotspots for WBC activity are in the northwest and northeast Ohio, and this year we concentrated our trapping efforts in these areas. Based on our current trapping results, we expect most of the egg laying to occur over the next week or so.
Any corn that has not tasseled should be scouted for the presence of egg masses on the upper most leaves; the threshold is 5% of corn infested. However, keep in mind that we have never had WBC over threshold in the 8 years it has been found in Ohio, so the likelihood of economic populations is low. For more information, please see our fact sheet at http://ohioline.osu.edu/ent-fact/pdf/0040.pdf.