We have corn! Woo hoo. Should I be putting mineral oil on it to prevent worms? Can you tell if a worm is in there just by looking at the ear? ?:|

Congratulations!

You can do the mineral oil thing, but it's always sounded to me like a LOT of work. No, you can't tell if an earworm is in there, but we've found it best to just pick the corn when the silk browns, and if you have a worm just snip it out and cut off the tip. They never, in my experience, do much damage to an ear.

You can not tell when, the worm is in there. The best way to do the oil thing is in a spray bottle.You may not get all of the corn, but they sure are pretty.

treatment in this manner should be done a week after pollenation occurs to be effective against the worms. there are also several other methods that work to prevent worms. But i don't plan on listing them since that was not orginal question.

How much corn do you have there, dancebreaks77?
If there's not too much, slipping pantyhose over the ears, tied closes with whatever, can be used as an alternative to the mineral oil.

You CAN tell is you have worms (watch the responses), but not JUST by looking at the outside of the ears. A little trick my dad taught me (his dad taught it to him). As soon as the ears start to fill out, go out and carefully peel back the top inch or so of a few ears. If you see any worms, put the husk back and squeeze it (over where the worms are) REAL HARD. This kills that worms you just found and lets you know that the "spray" is needed.

If you don't see any worms, carefully put back the husk and wait a day or 2. Then check a few different ears in the same way. Depending on how many stalks of corn you have, this may take a few weeks time so keep testing.