Corn Rootworm: How to Trap and Manage the Pest

[@BaughbeSauce]

I'm in Henry County, Iowa, and somehow we get northern, southern, AND western corn rootworm! The suckers have been the bane of my garden because they don't just attack corn!! Our property is surrounded on 3 sides by commercial corn fields. Every year, these little monsters devour my ripe tomatoes (weirdly, the ones that are black/green with red), melons, beans, corn, sunflowers, and squash flowers (just the flowers on those). Finally identified the suckers today. It's 100% these guys. The last couple of years I've really struggled with plant health. Like no matter how much fertilizer i used, they just didn't really seem to take off. I got okay harvests, but my plants were small and spindly. I bet these guys were eating their roots. I'll be seeding my garden this spring with nematodes. The Hb strain kills them at the larval stage. Then I'll have plants that repel them and a bottle of neem oil and another bottle of deadbug ready for those who survive. THIS IS WAR.

[@DaWorldOwner]

I live in Polo Illinois and these northern corn rootworm beetles have been all over my garden since 2020(also in 2021 and now in 2022). It's funny that I only read or hear about them being in wisconsin. It's also funny that I've never once seen these bugs or had to deal with them until the year 2020(I can't deal with them because they come from surrounding cornfields). Very strange that this vid is also from 2020. I'm assuming the idiot corn farmers around me have switched their seed to something cheaper/prone to these beetles. The Northern versions are all over my garden. I seen green ones, slightly yellow ones, and light brown/tan colored ones. Most are green. I see 0 stripes on the green ones. They eat 90% of my flowers. They are in my french marigolds, Spearmint flower heads, Yellow petunias(They don't seem to like my black petunias or the purple with white stripe petunias), Wild type small multihead sunflowers(last year they destroyed my mammoth sunflowers(this year I didn't grow any.. whats the point now..), all over my Zucchini flowers, killing my pink and white Dahlias, and the only plant they are killing flowers on are my banana pepper plants but I see what looks like either slug trails on the leaves or it could be the larval stage leaving their trails. I have no corn in my garden. From what little information I could find via google(how are more people not complaining or at least talking about these extremely invasive and extremely destructive pests???) the larval stage of these stupid beetles prefer plants/soil high in nitrogen(go figure most farmers around northern illinois use non organic nitrogen) so clover and alfalfa would also harbor these annoying af pests. I had to 100% get rid of my purple clover for the first time in years and I still have tons of these stupid bugs. Yet I have almost 0 bees and butterflies now because I'm forced to put out less and less flowers each year. Also the stupid farmers around Polo Illinois recently sprayed around the entire town. They haven't sprayed since 20+years ago. Why is the government not doing something about these invasive/destructive pests? Or at least running tests on them so tiny gardeners like me or ignorant farmers(not hating on farmers I wish I could be one but NOT corn. SICK of cattle corn!!) can better get rid of them?? I do not want to spray and I highly doubt that would get rid of them anyway. I also don't want tons of, "beneficial" flies that are always trying to get in my residence. I might try ground beetles but those try to get in my residence also. I go out every day and zap at least 100 of these stupid things but it makes 0 difference. I hate these northern corn rootworm beetles!!

[@BaughbeSauce]

I've been seeing in reports (while researching these bastards for my own garden) that the beetles have adapted to some of the resistant corn strains. It was never 100% effective, which means that any who were happy munching on these 'resistant' strains survived, multiplied, and adapted. I'm 100% with you on the monoculture farming practices. It's destroying our ecosystems. Get some Hb nematodes to protect your roots and plant plants that repel these monsters. Also, plant lots of plants that attract predatory insects like yarrow. There's lots of them, but that's the only one I can think of at this hour. Lol.