This article appears on www.greatlakshybrids.com

Corn rootworms cost farmers across the Corn Belt an estimated $1 billion a year in crop damage and control measures. This summer, Monsanto and YieldGard® Plus Corn will conduct a sticky trap monitoring program to help growers in 11 Midwestern states monitor and better manage this costly pest.
Pherocon AM trap in soybean field.
The sticky trap program is designed to gauge the prevalence of the western corn rootworm variant, an insect that has adapted its reproductive cycle in order to survive field rotations between corn and soybeans. The western corn rootworm variant lays its eggs in soybean fields, and the larvae hatch when the fields have been rotated to corn the following season, leading to rootworm feeding in first-year corn. The program will also monitor northern corn rootworms, which may be exhibiting similar variant behavior.
The sticky trap program will take place in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Nebraska, Kansas, South Dakota and Wisconsin. Results of the monitoring program will enable farmers to determine if they have a potential rootworm problem that suggests they should consider management options for the 2007 growing season.
The sticky trap program is being supported by local FFA chapters in the target states. FFA youth will encourage farmers in their communities to participate in the program and help place the sticky traps in their soybean fields in late July to determine whether rootworm beetles are present and at what level. Monsanto will provide participating FFA chapters with a $50 donation for each sticky trap site they secure, including the return of completed test data at the end of the monitoring program in August.
Monsanto conducted a similar sticky trap monitoring program in five Corn Belt states in 2005. Results showed that the western corn rootworm beetle was trapped in almost all counties where the sticky traps were placed by growers in their soybean fields and that, in several counties, the number of beetles exceeded the economic threshold for control of this pest.
“We’re very pleased to team up with the FFA to help farmers assess their potential risk from the corn rootworm variant,” said Clint Pilcher, Monsanto Corn Trait Marketing Manager. “As the variant continues to expand throughout the Midwest, growers need to be aware of this pest so they can consider appropriate management options to protect their yields.”

Our FFA this summer was one of the participants here are some pictures to show what we did.