Olathe sweet corn, one of Colorado’s most famous summer treats, has been slow to hit stores this year as moth-laying worms continue to plague fields. But local farmers and researchers are working hard to find solutions as the state gets deeper into what would normally be sweet corn-eating season.
John Harold, who popularized the corn variety decades ago and even owns the trademark Olathe Sweet, told CPR News on Friday he hopes to start sending out large quantities of corn in the coming days. His company, Tuxedo Corn, has used increasingly natural methods this season, including releasing moths infected with a sexually transmitted disease that renders them sterile.
Harold calls the germ, which is a modified virus delivered through a product called Insterus-Hz, “the opposite of Viagra.”
Other methods Harold is trying include using more targeted insecticides, with the hope of killing moths but not hurting helpful bugs, like ladybugs, that like to munch on the pests. Other farmers are using drones to spray at night.
It remains to be seen whether any of this is working.
“We may be able to turn the corner,” Harold told CPR News in July. “If we don’t. I guess we’ll have a head-on crash.”
Nearly two weeks later, he said he’s in the same holding pattern.
Colorado State University Extension is one of several agencies trying to solve the corn growers’ worm problem. Entomologist Melissa Schreiner explained that it’s too soon to know whether the moth STD — developed by a Kentucky-based company called Lepidext — proves to be a “silver bullet.”
“By launching a product that would cause moths to become sterile, then they couldn't mate, females’ progeny wouldn't grow up” and thus the entire moth population would plummet — or at least that’s the hope, Schreiner said.
Lepidext is still testing Insterus, and both CSU Extension and Harold are only using it in a small area. Schreiner said the company may look at Olathe to do wider tests next year.
Its success would be a huge boon to corn growers in the area and much farther away. The corn earworm, which goes by several different names, is a scourge on many top crop plants around the world, Schreiner said.
She’s spoken to corn growers across the country dealing with the worm, which seems to be hitting this rural section of the Western Slope particularly hard.
One factor could be the same reason the iconic Colorado corn is so beloved: its sweetness. Schreiner imagines migrating moths crossing the vast desert and being attracted to these fields, a green oasis of sugar.
Other contributing factors could include new genes found in Olathe’s moths from a bug called the Old World bollworm. The new genetic makeup could make the pests hardier, including more cold-resistant. Schreiner’s agency has worked alongside others, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture, to attempt to figure out how to beat the corn earworm.
“We've been saying we're knocking our heads together trying to work through this,” she said.
Even though they know a lot more than they did, they still don’t have any concrete solutions. CSU Extension is trialing new pesticides, but Schreiner said relying on pesticides may have contributed to the worm infestation.
While the corn growers’ worm problem is grim, Schreiner said there could be a silver lining: competing farmers joining forces to try and find a way to defeat a common enemy that’s become the biggest challenge they’ve ever seen for their crop.
“For the first time in history, we are seeing folks working together and these individuals are coming together to try to provide these answers,” Schreiner said.
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