Coping with the corn borer

Biological & environmentally friendly

Danger in the cornfield – the corn borer

The corn borer is a small butterfly that ranks among the most considerable pests in the cornfield. Each year it is responsible for over 4% failed harvest worldwide.

The female corn borer lays up to 500 eggs at the leaf undersurface of the cornplant. After 14 days the caterpillars hatch and feed on the cornplant. Blossoms, infructescences and the marrow of the stems fall an easy prey to the catarpillars. The infested plants are more prone to diseases and fungal infestations.

Natural relief – the trichogramma ichneumonid

The corn borer is conventionelly combated with insecticides. Insecticides are not allowed in ecological and organic agriculture. The trichogramma-ichneumonids are the perfect solution for the efficient and organic pest control.
The sustainability of this method speaks for itself:

Coping with the corn borer

Step 1

The ichneumonid is an eggparasitoid, it lays its egg into the moths egg. The larvae are killed by the ichneumonids.

Coping with the corn borer

Step 2

The young ichneumonids are looking for new moth eggs to lay their own eggs into them and stop the new generation of the parasites.

Efficient application via drone

The trichogramma ichneumonids are placed in biodegradable capsules and are transported to the fields by our hightech multicopters.

By advanced GPS and precise dropping we are able to drop the capsules at the exact target. That spares the farmers a lot of time and work because the manual application of trichogramma is very complex.

It has never been so easy to combat the pest in a sustainable and organic way.

Discern the advantages

The trichogramma application via multicopter provides work simplification and profit increase. By now not only organic farmers rely on the ichneumonids.

Coping with the corn borer

No crop damage

The application of trichogramma does not cause crop damage and the pollution of soil and groundwater by chemicals of the insecticides can be completely avoided.

Coping with the corn borer

Healthy environment

By this means the trichogramma-ichneumonids do not only contribute to a healthy cropfield but also to a healthy environment in general.

Distribution Possibilitiess

Based on the requirements of our customers, we use different manufacturers and application processes. A distinction can be made between two different distribution methods.

Coping with the corn borer

Simple Distribution

The simple distribution guarantees the protection for a period up to 4 weeks. The beneficial insects are divided into two flights, which take place every 14 days. In this case, the spheres are only half filled with the eggs.

Coping with the corn borer

Enforced Distribution

In an enforced application, the total of 220,000 eggs per hectare are applied during the first flight. On the one hand, a single flight is cheaper, but on the other hand, it also reduces the period of protection.

The right Timing

Regardless of the type of distribution, the correct application period or rather the day is the decisive factor. The flight activity of the corn borer is monitored with the help of light and pheromone traps. These are set up based on an annual heat sum of around 200°C. This describes the sum of the total daily temperature values from the beginning of the year with a daily average temperature over 10°C. Since with the help of pheromone traps mostly males can be captured, light traps are more suitable solution. By regularly counting the number of moths caught, an increase in the population can be registered, which means that the distribution period is reached.

Coping with the corn borer

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