Last year around harvest time, I received several questions about the potential causes of ear malformations, specifically banana-shaped ears, and the possibility that stink bugs could have been the culprit. Some fields had ears that were banana-shaped or just misshapen in general, with missing or shriveled kernels and lower than ex­­pected yields. 

Unfortunately, at harvest time, it is very hard to say for certain what was the cause of such malformation unless field scouting was regular throughout the growing season and a few suspected...