Effect of Inoculative Releases of Trichogramma ostriniae on Populations of Ostrinia nubilalis and Damage to Sweet Corn and Field Corn

Abstract

European corn borer (Ostrinia nubilalis) is one of the most injurious pests of sweet and field corn in the United States. We report here on controlled experiments in which an egg parasitoid (Trichogramma ostriniae) was released inoculatively (75,000 females ha−1) early in the growing season (when corn plants were at the early to mid-whorl stage) to test its efficacy as a biological control agent of O. nubilalis. Releases were made in fields of sweet corn and field corn. Numbers of eggs laid in experimental plots, larval tunnels, and larvae and proportion of damaged ears were determined. Mass of ears was determined for field corn plots. In sweet corn, despite greater oviposition by O. nubilalis in T. ostriniae release plots, the number of borer larvae, stalk tunnels, and damaged ears was reduced by ∼50% compared with those in nonrelease plots. This reduction in damage was consistent for early and late-planted sweet corn. In the field corn plots, larger numbers of O. nubilalis eggs were again laid in some release plots than in control plots. However, O. nubilalis damage appeared to be suppressed in T. ostriniae release plots, although no significant differences were found in most. These results were promising, but further work is required in field corn. The results for sweet corn demonstrated that inoculative releases of T. ostriniae provide suppression of O. nubilalis populations adequate to reduce damage significantly.