New Genes Can Kill Garden Vegetable-Eating Worms

October 1, 1999

USDA's Agricultural Research Service believes a protein can help keep tiny fall army worm larvae from developing into fat caterpillars that eat corn and other vegetable crops. The research also has potential to help commercial vegetable producers and home gardeners control caterpillars that eat such crops as broccoli, cauliflower and other vegetables.

Scientists at ARS and Mississippi State University found and isolated the protein in insect-resistant corn. Vegetable seed company Seminis has agreed to investigate the potential use of the gene to control caterpillars in commercially grown produce crops. Seminis is located in Saticoy, CA.

The technology should benefit commercial vegetable producers by lowering the costs of pesticide inputs. MSU and ARS have received a patent for the gene sequence that encodes the protein.

Late-planted corn is especially vulnerable to the fall armyworm, especially in the South. Drought-stricken Texas was hit particularly hard last year with high populations. Loss estimates in some years have exceeded $200 million.