Corn Earworm Flight Is Underway- Watch Blooming Soybeans

By Dominic Reisig

Corn earworm activity has been unusually high this year. Pheromone traps captured about three times as many moths in June 2026 as they did in June 2025. Now, light trap captures across the state show that moths are active and laying eggs in our crops.

However, high moth catches do not always lead to problems in soybeans. A lot can happen between egg laying and crop damage. Diseases, predators, and parasitoids can kill many eggs and larvae before they cause economic loss.

Blooming soybeans are highly attractive to moths looking for places to lay eggs. Fields become less attractive for egg laying once pods begin to develop at R3. Still, larvae already present in a field can begin feeding on pods and seeds as they form.

Begin scouting closely when soybeans reach R3, or beginning pod. Several resources are available to help:

• Scouting for Insects on the N.C. Cooperative Extension soybean portal includes information on sampling for corn earworm. It explains how to use a sweep net or drop cloth and how to use the online corn earworm threshold calculator.
• Use the online threshold calculator for corn earworm to know whether it pays to treat.
• Another resource for scouting is on YouTube
• Another resource for mid-season scouting also on YouTube

The surest way to prevent yield loss is to treat when the economic threshold is reached. One common mistake is deciding not to treat a field because it has low yield potential.