Source: NCSU COOPERATIVE EXTENSION, 10/26/21


Southern corn billbug is a historical pest of corn in the southeastern US and, in North Carolina, was a persistent pest throughout the Coastal Plain. Nearly 100 years ago (1917), a biologist named Z.P. Metcalf published a technical bulletin describing its biology and even used an insectary dedicated to rearing southern corn billbug. A century of drainage, land development, and improved weed control likely decreased the prevalence and range of this pest. Interest in its biology waned, as researchers moved onto other more important pests. Finally, the widespread deployment of corn seed treated with clothainidin (Poncho 1250) in the mid-1990’s almost rang the death knell for this pest, as insecticide-treated corn knocked back populations that were still persistent in the North Carolina Blacklands region.

Growers are well-aware of how reliance on a single tactic (insecticides) and a single mode of action within that tactic can lead to failure. Indeed, what is old is new again, as southern corn billbug populations have increased in both number and expanded in range.

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