NATCHEZ — In a year when hundreds of acres of corn died and dried out under the heat of the sun, a second planting may seem like a last ditch effort to turn a profit.

But for several patches of corn in Adams County — in Anna’s Bottom, Kingston and the Carthage Point area, among others — the only profit those patches are intended to turn is in knowledge.

Adams County is one of several areas in Mississippi where research plots of corn have been planted to scout for a nasty pest, Adams County Extension Director David Carter said.

“The last three years, we have done research on corn borers around the state to find out where they are and what impact they have,” Carter said.

Corn borers do exactly what their name implies — they bore into the corn stalk and eat, damaging the plant tissue as they chew tunnels through it.

Young borers are caterpillars, while the adult borer is a small, light-brown moth.

To catch the borers, Carter said he puts out traps similar to those used to trap boll weevils. The trap has a small entrance on the top that allows the borers to fly in, but not out.

When the borers fly in, they contact with a poison strip and are killed.

“So far, we have caught hardly any, maybe 10,” Carter said.

“We have been kind of lucky and fortunate. We are trying to monitor and make sure they aren’t coming in.”

If the pest is discovered to have any real presence in the county, Carter said farmers would be notified right away and told what kind of control strategy to use, which he said would likely be a pesticide application.

The extension service is also scouting for another pest, soybean rust, but the fungus — which can cause soybeans to defoliate too early — hasn’t been found, and most soybeans are mature enough that it’s no longer a concern, Carter said.

“All of our crops are getting to the point where they are safe,” Carter said.

“We haven’t had to deal with it yet, so we’re lucky.”