Clean sweet corn is not easy to grow, but organic and no- or low-spray growers are successfully dealing with potential pest infestations using tiny wasps so consumers won't find little worms when they husk their corn.

Five farm families are working with Abby Seaman, vegetable integrated pest management (IPM) extension educator of Cornell University's IPM Program, and Mike Hoffmann, Cornell professor of entomology, on a project funded by the farmer-led New York Farm Viability Institute to grow corn without chemical pesticides. "Control with wasps will naturally be more variable than the consistency achieved with insecticide application, but the results will most of the time satisfy customers that prefer direct market purchase of organic or no/low-spray products," Seaman says.