My whole corn crop, eaten!

I could cry. Almost my whole corn crop has been eaten by little black bugs. I waited a few days to pick because most ears weren't quite ready yet. I went out today and saw this! Who are these little buggers and can I still use the ear if I cut off the bad part? I planned on blanching and freezing the corn, cut from the cob. Can I still do that after I cut off the tops or are all these ears gone? This is at least a dozen that are like this and I left most on the stalk because they are too far gone. Thanks for any insight and tips

yes, get rid of damaged tips, do whatever u want with rest. We call them picnic bugs.

Now my 3 plantings have been destroyed by coons. Hit patch week before ears are ready.

seedcorn said:

yes, get rid of damaged tips, do whatever u want with rest. We call them picnic bugs.

Now my 3 plantings have been destroyed by coons. Hit patch week before ears are ready.

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Thanks. And sorry about your coon problems! It's been a bad year for me for bugs in my garden. I have a fence around my yard and another around my garden. Mammals aren't my issue, it's the small pests for me

seedcorn said:

yes, get rid of damaged tips, do whatever u want with rest. We call them picnic bugs.

Now my 3 plantings have been destroyed by coons. Hit patch week before ears are ready.

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Same happened to use last summer. Every last year. Nothing left.

The little bugs/beetles tend to take advantage if something else damages the tip cover. In my experience, that is usually birds. To judge by the frayed & shredded husks in the photos posted by the OP, birds are the real problem; the beetles just entered after the damage was done. Yeah, I know... pretty late to the party, and too late to be helpful. This year, watch for flocks of blackbirds or goldfinches, and put up something to scare them off. Or befriend a barn cat.

I remember discussions about corn, but couldn't find the thread (probably buried somewhere in @heirloomgal 's thread). As I was cleaning up last year's seed, I discovered I had forgotten to shell the "Gaspe" flint corn grown last year. In terms of production, last year was a failure; 80-90% of the crop was lost to rodents, smut, and rot. But since each plant set 4-6 ears, that still left enough good seed for preservation & seed sharing. After cleaning & sorting, I ended up with 28 ounces of seed - about what I would expect from a bean grow out.

"Gaspe" flint corn 2023

As with the "Painted Mountain" corn I grew in previous years, this was a mix of seed from 2 different sources. I hope to grow some of the remaining original seed this year & mix the two lots, to preserve as much genetic diversity as possible. That is especially important for corn, which if grown in small populations, can gradually deteriorate through inbreeding depression.

I'll be a lot more proactive in rodent control this time, and will try planting through agricultural cloth to hopefully minimize the prevalence of soil-borne smut.

Not to be disagreeable but the birds find the bugs and strip back the husks looking for more bugs. The bugs cause little problems. Just break the tips off and eat. Birds are another thing as they carry many nasties with them. As long as I saw zero fusarium, I’d break the uncovered part off & eat. Fusarium early will not cause any problems. If it tastes off, throw away-don’t give it to any animal except poultry. Fusarium with their toxins don’t bother poultry. Never give it to mammals.

seedcorn said:

Not to be disagreeable but the birds find the bugs and strip back the husks looking for more bugs. The bugs cause little problems.

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I respectfully disagree with your disagreement. As you stated, the bugs cause little problems... and the few bugs on each ear are incapable of causing such extensive & widespread damage in a short period of time. I've examined my corn after chasing birds away, and find many kernels which are freshly torn or pierced, not bug eaten - and the birds I see (usually sparrows or finches in large numbers) are seed eaters. This only happens when the corn is close to maturity (the same stage at which raccoons take an interest) and I usually harvest before the damage is widespread. For sweet corn, I use those damaged ears for cut corn & use undamaged ears as corn on the cob.

As I'm picking sweet corn, I often eat an ear or two of the smaller 2nd ears raw. If I throw those cobs on the ground, beetles & other bugs are quickly attracted to them.

I don't know why, but for some reason, neither birds nor bugs seem as interested in the dry corn I grow... at least not yet. I've noticed that goldfinches seem to learn as a flock, will suddenly attack things en masse that they have never bothered before, and return until that food supply is depleted. In different years, they have decimated pea vines, and once pecked my 12" tall Swiss chard right down to the ground.

@Zeedman enjoy a great discussion. I’ve never seen birds attack corn without the corn having insects first-usually ear worms. Agree the birds destroyed the corn. Just disagree why.

seedcorn said:

@Zeedman enjoy a great discussion. I’ve never seen birds attack corn without the corn having insects first-usually ear worms. Agree the birds destroyed the corn. Just disagree why.

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Oh, how I wish I could train or encourage birds to eat ear worms! If I do nothing, they will infest the majority of the sweetcorn crop, and nothing attacks them. Most of their damage is confined to the tips; I then open the husks, and shake them into a bucket of soapy water as I pick. But since I began pressure spraying into the silks early with BT, I hardly see any ear worms.

Borers are another story, but since GM field corn became widespread here, I have not seen a major outbreak. It surprises me that the ear worm population does not seem to have been affected to the same degree.

A funny story. When I lived in San Diego, I trained ants to hunt the ear worms. I would find a couple large larvae, then stir up the ant nest nearest the corn & drop them in. Those caterpillars are actually pretty tough, and would kill quite a few ants before being killed. After several days of this, the ants (which were already all over the corn hunting or farming aphids) began attacking the worms in the ears. I've tried to repeat that process here, but apparently the ants here are less aggressive.

Trust me that you really don’t want birds attacking corn ears. They introduce fusarium which leads to nasty toxins or gibb.

Seeing a field of white or pink ears is not a pretty sight