- The corn rootworm is an increasing threat to corn cultivation.
- The pest occurs mainly in the south of Poland, where local monocultures suffer serious losses caused by the larvae.
- The corn rootworm migrates northwards.
As we read in the phytosanitary announcements of IOR-PIB in Poznań:
– The Team of Advisors of the Warmia-Masuria Agricultural Advisory Center in Lidzbark Warmiński, led by Manager Joanna Sułek, in cooperation with the IOR-PIB Field Experimental Station in Rzeszów, on July 24, 2024 in Kraszewo near Lidzbark Warmiński, detected and confirmed for the first time in history the presence of the corn rootworm in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship. On this day, 4 males of this species were caught in pheromone traps.
More and more corn is being sown in the north of the country. This is possible thanks to breeding progress that provides varieties adapted to the specific conditions of this region. Climate warming also favors thermophilic corn. Therefore, the appearance of corn pests not reported more frequently in this part of the country should not come as a surprise.
– The detection of the corn rootworm by the Warmia-Masuria Agricultural Advisory Center in 2024 is another breakthrough showing that the expansion of the pest towards the Baltic Sea has not stopped. It will be necessary to find out how many towns in this province it has taken over, which is easiest to do using pheromone traps. The pest is still being sought in the Pomeranian and West Pomeranian Voivodeships because theoretically they are still free from the beetle – says Prof. for farmer.pl. Paweł Bereś from IOR-PIB in Poznań, TSD Rzeszów.
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There are already corn rootworm beetles. Corn hatches from the larvae
Almost 20 years of the pest's expansion in Poland
In Poland, the corn rootworm was first detected in 2005 in the Podkarpackie Voivodeship. The pest was then entered on the list of quarantine pests. By the end of 2013, the woodpecker had inhabited the area of 11 voivodeships except: Lubuskie, West Pomeranian, Pomeranian, Kuyavian-Pomeranian and Warmian-Masurian. After 9 years, it was decided to remove it from the list because it was concluded that such restrictions did not help much in the expansion of this species. The pest continues to conquer new regions.
– We are increasingly seeing beetles that can migrate long distances, which favors the spread of the insect. The beetles feeding en masse on the cobs may locally influence the decrease in cob grain size, but at the moment there are no economic losses caused by them yet. It should be noted, however, that woodworm beetles increasingly migrate from corn fields to other crops, e.g. cucurbits, where they can damage flowers, leading to a deterioration in the yield of these plants – says prof. Paweł Bereś from IOR-PIB in Poznań.
The beetle disappeared from national monitoring for a long time
As prof. explains to us Paweł Bereś, since 2014, since the beetle was removed from the list of quarantine organisms, there has been no nationwide monitoring of the spread of this insect in Poland. Random observations were carried out only by IOR-PIB TSD Rzeszów, which detected the pest in 2016 near Świebodzin (Lubusz Voivodeship) and in 2022 near Włocławek (Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship). Therefore, the occurrence of the beetle was officially known in 13 voivodeships. However, it was suspected that the pest had a wider range than confirmed by research, which required extending the scope of monitoring of this pest.
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What kind of topping, what kind of yield. How is the corn yield building this year? 
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Exceptionally warm season and corn pests. Which of them can become harmful?
Therefore, as the scientist tells us, fortunately, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development was interested in supporting the monitoring of the occurrence of the corn rootworm, but also the European corn borer, because in 2024 it granted the Institute of Plant Protection – National Research Institute research topic No. 1.15 under the Targeted Grant called: "Updating the range occurrence and evaluation of various methods of monitoring the European corn borer and corn rootworm for the purposes of their precise control. As part of this topic, the IOR-PIB Station in Rzeszów, in cooperation with Agricultural Advisory Centers as well as companies selling corn seed material and interested farmers, placed several dozen pheromone traps throughout the country (with particular intensification in the northern voivodeships) to look for woodworm beetles. This will allow us to know the current range of the pest within a few years and it will be possible to create a new map of the occurrence of the corn rootworm in the country.