Sweet Corn

Cut worm can damage any vegetable crop, but is a big problem with corn.  Most cutworms hide in plant trash and cut close to ground level, but some climbing cutworms devour leaves.

                                                                                                                                              Corn borer damage. 

                                                                                               When a larva tunnels through a rolled leaf in the shoot, the holes create a pattern--

                                                                                                              much like the paper snowflakes you made when you were a child.

                                               Corn rust

                                                                                                                           Corn smut is a disease. 

                                                                                          When immature, it is called "maize mushroom" and can be eaten.

Fall armyworm larvae have an inverted white "Y" on its "face."

                                                                                            Corn earworm larva.  The larvae could be pink, tan, dark brown, or green.

                  Corn earworm larva on ear of sweet corn

                                                                                   Western corn rootworm beetle feeds on silks and lays eggs in soil.  The larvae chew corn roots.

                                         Sweet corn with incomplete tip fill

                                                                                     Sweet corn with leaf spot and incomplete tip fill