The lesser cornstalk borer (Elasmpalpus lignoselus) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) is a pest of sugarcane particularly in dry and well drained, sandy soils. Larvae bore into young shoots at or just below the soil surface. Leaves fed upon within the whorl expand to reveal rows of holes above which the leaves normally break. A dead heart condition (premature death of the youngest one to three leaves) is produced when larvae kill the growth point within the shoot. The trial was set up as a split plot design with two main plots (stubble and plant cane) and two subplots (trash and no trash blanket). Harvest residue left after green cane harvesting was removed to produce the “no trash” subplots in the stubble cane field and then evenly distributed in marked plots to produce “trash” subplots in the plant cane field. The sugarcane variety in both main plots was CP89-2143. In plant cane, dead hearts in the plots without trash were nearly 30 times of the plots having trash. In stubble cane, the dead hearts were twice in the plots without trash as compared to with trash plots. Plants with holes in the leaves were also double in the absence of trash in plant cane. There was no significant difference in damage by other insects (e.g., cutworms, armyworms, and grasshoppers) with use of trash blanket.