Control of European Corn Borer on Two Varieties of Peppers, 1992

Insecticide trials on bell and sweet peppers were conducted at Michigan State University Horticulture Teaching and Research Farm in 1992. Pepper seedlings were obtained from a local grower and transplanted into 6.1 m rows on 6 Jun, with 91.4 cm between row spacing and 35.6 cm between plant spacing. Five treatments were applied to both pepper varieties in a randomized block design with four replications. Treatments were applied to foliage using a hand held CO2 sprayer at 35 psi with a single nozzle at 40 gal/acre. Low corn borer activity led us to artificially infest our plots. European corn borer egg masses were obtained from the Corn Insect Lab at Ankeny, Iowa. Five randomly selected plants per replicate received ECB egg masses. The egg masses were pinned to the underside of the leaf through the mid rib, near a developing fruit. One egg mass per plant was attached 17 Aug and two egg masses per plant were attached 3 Sep. All treatments were applied on 18, 24, and 31 of Aug, and 6 Sep. Orthene 75 SP and MVP were sprayed on alternate weeks, beginning with Orthene 75 SP. Pepper fruits were destructively harvested on 18 Sep. Only peppers from the artificially infested plants were sampled, with no more than five fruit picked per pepper plant. Each fruit was cut open and inspected for ECB larvae. Fisher’s Protected LSD test at β = 0.01 was performed on the percent of pepper fruit contaminated with ECB larvae.