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Corn stunt moved into Missouri and points north in 2024

Corn leafhoppers are small insects that can damage corn crops. The bugs appeared farther North this year in Missouri and Oklahoma.
Stephen Biles/Texas A&M Agrilife Extension
Corn leafhoppers are small insects that can damage corn crops. The bugs appeared farther North this year in Missouri and Oklahoma.

A corn disease shocked scientists by turning up in states as far north as Minnesota and New York this year.

Corn stunt is a common problem in Central and South America. It has been in Texas for years.

But this year the leafhoppers that carry it moved into Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri and beyond.

“How is this leafhopper spreading across all these northern states? Will it survive over the winter, for example here in Kansas? So those questions, we don’t have a good answer for right now," said Rodrigo Onofre, a crop pathologist at Kansas State University Extension.

The disease reduces corn yields. Onofre says winds from the south may have combined with other factors to spread its insect hosts.