Popcorn may prove to be a blessing in insect resistance management, or Bt (Bacillus Thuriagiensis) corn crops, experts said Tuesday.

Colothdian Tate, graduate student in entomology, spoke to a crowd of about 30 Tuesday night in Lagomarcino E164 about the benefits of popcorn.

Popcorn was the topic of Tate’s dissertation defense entitled “Popcorn: A potential refuge for resistance management of European corn borer and corn rootworms.”

Bt corn is a crop genetically engineered to be resistant to certain insects, Tate said.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requires all farms producing Bt corn to plant an area of non-Bt corn which is called a refuge, according to the EPA Web site, www.epa.gov. These plots are important in providing a place for European corn borers and corn rootworms to mate.

Tate said conclusions made by his experiments could allow for reductions in the areas of refuge required, which will increase the value of planting popcorn.

Corn borers and corn rootworms together annually cause over $2 billion worth of costs in crop damages and expenses in control measures, Tate said.

However, they must be allowed a place to reproduce so the insects susceptible to the Bt toxins can mate with the insects resistant to the toxins, according to a University of Nebraska (Lincoln) Web site, http://agbiosafety.unl.edu/education/refugebuilder/refugebuilder.htm. The pests must mate together to produce offspring that are susceptible to the Bt toxin.

Transgenic corn production, or Bt corn, for controlling corn rootworms was approved by the EPA in 2003, Tate said.

He said farmers can plant 80 percent of their acres with Bt corn and must plant at least 20 percent of their land with refuge by EPA standards.

In an experiment Tate conducted for his dissertation, he planted plots of popcorn as a refuge.

Significant differences in European corn borer larvae were observed in the popcorn plantings. He said three times more larvae was produced in the popcorn per meter.

The corn rootworms in the popcorn were found to develop late, Tate said. This is considered to be beneficial since the transgenic beetles, which are resistant to Bt toxins, emerge later in the season. The nonresistant beetles are able to mate with the resistant beetles, which causes larvae from the union to be susceptible to Bt toxin.

“If we can hone down the refuge area, even if the refuge crops are a total loss, we will be taking less land away, which puts the farmer on top,” said Robin Pruisner, entomologist for the Iowa Department of Agriculture. “More land towards transgenic corn and less refuge is a win-win situation for [the state] and the farmers.”

Pruisner said Iowa Secretary of Agriculture, Patty Judge, is concerned about biotechnology partly in response to environmentalists’ worries of the effects on the environment produced by crops such as Bt corn.

She said more people are getting worked up about the issue and the state department is interested in trying to find a more financially profitable way to solve the present problems.

The problem with the popcorn plantings is the farmer might not have a contract for producing popcorn, said Jon Tollefson, professor of entomology. He said it might be more economically successful to plant an extra two or three refuges rather than spend money on popcorn the farmer cannot sell.

Richard Hellmich, collaborator in entomology, said planting popcorn may prove to be more useful when the refuge requirements are reduced in size.

But for now, the beetles have to mate in the refuges, said Tollefson.

“It’s similar to a college bar,” Pruisner said, “The females are calling the guys and the guys are cruising for chicks.” Going along with the analogy, Tollefson said the bar is the refuge site where the nonresistant insects are mating with the resistant insects.

“We are bringing the bar to the beetles to encourage the mix,” Tollefson said. “There’s a bar in every [Bt] field.”