A SCRAWNY strain of wild maize from Argentina could help farmers do battle with the European corn borer, an insect pest which does about $350 million of damage to the US maize crop every year. Unlike commercial maize, the wild strain makes chemicals in its leaves which discourage female corn borer moths from laying eggs.
It's the larvae that do all the damage. They start on the leaves, and then nibble their way through the stalk, which they hollow out completely. Nutrients can no longer reach the parts of the plant above ground, and often the stalk is so weakened that the plants collapse.
Farmers usually fight off the borers (
To continue reading this article, subscribe to receive access to all of newscientist.com, including 20 years of archive content.