Corn Rootworm III: Western Corn Rootworm Damage in Corn Following Soybeans

Decades of an intense corn-soybean rotation in east-central Illinois and west-central Indiana have selected for a strain of western corn rootworm (CRW) that deposits eggs in soybeans rather than corn fields. This new strain has since spread to parts of western Ohio, southwestern Michigan, southern Wisconsin and southeastern Minnesota in addition to continued expansion in Illinois and Indiana. As a result, crop rotation is no longer an effective CRW management strategy in some areas of the Corn Belt. This article discusses the development of the variant CRW biotype, the approximate areas of infestation, and management practices to deal with this increasing problem.

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