The Fall Armyworm (FAW) Spodoptera frugiperda is a regular and serious pest of corn Zea mays in the southeastern United States.� In order to screen new corn hybrids for resistance to FAW, hybrids are either subjected to artificial inoculation or environments with heavy natural FAW populations.� For many years, tests for achieving FAW data have been sent from Iowa to Puerto Rico, North Carolina, or Georgia, where there has been a history of heavy natural pressure.� However, rising expenses and lost data due to hurricanes have become problematic.

Since the FAW flight usually arrives mid-July to early August in Iowa, I tested the hypothesis that delay-planting experiments would synchronize small corn plants with flight time and create a natural high-pressure screening environment representative of Southern locations.� Comparison of FAW data from various locations with data from Johnston for years 2002 and 2003 featuring transgenic lepidopteran resistant products, YieldGard-Corn Borer¹ (YGCB) and Herculex 1² (HX1), are presented.

¹ YieldGard is a trademark used under license from Monsanto Company.

  Herculex 1 insect protection technology by Dow AgroSciences and Pioneer Hi-Bred.

² Herculex is a trademark of Dow AgroSciences LLC.