The Summerland Advocate-Messenger - Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community

Dealing with insect pests is a frustrating aspect of vegetable gardening. With some insects, by the time the damage is noticed it may be too late to do much but share produce with the little critters.

Examples of such insects are corn earworm, tomato fruit worm and squash vine borer. Once these insects are inside the fruit or plant, it is too late to use control methods like insecticides.

Corn earworm adults are buff colored moths that lays eggs on corn silks at night. After hatching, larvae crawl down the silks into the corn ear. While several eggs are laid, there is only one earworm pe...