DuPont’s insecticide Coragen approved against new cutworm in corn

A relatively new insecticide has been cleared for use against a “relatively new” pest in Ontario corn crops.

DuPont on Thursday announced it’s picked up federal approval for use of its diamide insecticide Coragen against western bean cutworm (WBC) in field, seed and sweet corn crops.

DuPont senior sales rep Sylvain Legault, who in a release Thursday described the worm as “relatively new” to Ontario, said damage the pest caused last year in some pockets in the province was “quite extensive.

"The registration for WBC comes just in time as this year's late spring could make the corn crop more susceptible to WBC."

The cutworm’s moths generally don't like to lay eggs in corn that has already tasseled, DuPont’s Mississauga-based Canadian arm said in its release.

This year's later-planted crop may not tassel before WBC moths start laying eggs, the company said, adding that given the choice, the cutworm’s moths also tend to lay eggs in shorter corn.

"Later-planted sweet corn could be at an even higher risk if it is pre-tassel while the rest of the field corn crop is beyond that stage," Tracey Baute, a provincial field crops entomologist in Guelph, said in the company’s release.

Coragen -- which has DuPont’s proprietary Group 28 product Rynaxypyr as its active ingredient -- is also billed as effective against other key insects in corn such as European corn borer and corn earworm, and as “easy on beneficial insects” such as honeybees.