It's called the billion-dollar bug, the scourge of U.S. corn growers whose crops fall victim each year to a highly adaptive, brutally efficient pest. But here at Monsanto's testing facility, a 480-acre farm in northwest Illinois, Diabrotrica virgifera virgifera LeConte, otherwise known as the Western corn rootworm beetle, appears to have met its match -- at least for now.

The St. Louis-based company is field testing a type of biotech corn that is resistant to the beetle. Federal regulators are reviewing the technology and, if all goes well, the product will hit the commercial markets in U.S. and Japan by next year, well ahead of the competition.

For Monsanto, the product is the business equivalent of a golden harvest. Each year, rootworm costs farmers $1 billion in crop damage and pesticides, government statistics show. Corn growers last year spent $171 million to spray 14 million acres of corn with 8 million pounds of insecticide, according to Doane Marketing Research, a St. Louis-based agriculture research firm. So far, Monsanto's product, which the company markets as YieldGuard Rootworm, has earned good reviews from scientists and generated plenty of interest among farmers.

"It's a very exciting technology," said Brett Begemann, Monsanto's vice president of U.S.-branded products. Instead of spending millions of dollars to spray their fields with pesticides -- which farmers are loath to do anyway -- corn growers will be able to save money by planting a crop that protects itself, he said.

It's hard to doubt Begemann's optimism. For decades, corn rootworm has bedeviled farmers by quickly becoming resistant to pesticides.

"The corn rootworm is one of the most devastating pests from an economic standpoint," said Tom Slunecka, director of development at the St. Louis-based National Corn Growers' Association. "It's second to none. This technology will be extremely important to our growers."

Here's how the pest works: Beginning in August and September, the adult beetle lays its eggs in the corn field. Once the eggs hatch, the larvae feed on corn roots, depriving the plant of its ability to absorb water and nutrients from the soil. The result is a stunted crop with a significantly lower yield. Since roots anchor plants to the soil, the stalk also loses its ability to withstand wind gusts.

To throw the beetle off track, farmers rotated their crops between corn and soybeans, knowing the larvae would only feed on corn roots. But beginning in 1992, a specific type of beetle, the Western Corn Rootworm, neutralized crop rotation in Illinois: the insect began laying its eggs in soybean fields. Once farmers harvested soybeans and replanted the field with corn, the eggs would hatch just in time for the larvae to feed on corn. The phenomenon has since spread to fields in Indiana, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Illinois, however, has been particularly hard hit. In 1993, farmers sprayed 13 percent of their first-year corn acres against the pest, according to the Western Corn Rootworm Monitoring Project at the University of Illinois. By 1998, growers had to spray 75 percent to 85 percent of their fields.

What researchers at Monsanto have done is develop corn that contains a protein specifically designed to destroy the beetle before it matures into an adult. Once the larvae digest the root, the protein burns a hole into the insect's stomach lining, killing it instantly.

Independent testing of the product at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, have produced encouraging results, said Kevin Steffey, an entomologist with the school's department of crop sciences. Under a 1-to-6 ranking system adopted by farmers to measure corn root damage (with 6 being the worst), more than 95 percent of the Monsanto corn tested rated 3 or below, he said, which "is pretty damn good."

In order for Monsanto to succeed, the product "has to be at least as effective as an insecticide," Steffey said.

Steffey thinks YieldGuard Rootworm corn will not only compete with insecticides, but one day replace them altogether. But like all pests, he said, the rootworm beetle could also one day develop a resistance to this corn.

Nevertheless, the company is bullish on its product. Begemann says YieldGuard Rootworm can dramatically reduce corn growers' dependence on insecticides the same way the company's BollGuard Cotton allowed farmers to use less pesticide on cotton.

Under federal law, Monsanto cannot yet market the corn to farmers until it's green-lighted by the Environmental Protection Agency, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Agriculture Department. Nevertheless, the company, clearly anticipating regulatory approval, is sponsoring regular outings to its testing facility to "educate" farmers about its forthcoming product.

Monsanto does have competition. Dow Agrosciences, a subsidiary of Dow Chemical; and Pioneer Hi-Bred, a unit of DuPont Co., are jointly developing their own rootworm-resistant corn. The two companies hope to have a product ready by 2003 or 2004, said Wally Thingelstad, a spokesman for Dow Agrosciences.

Despite Monsanto's overwhelming lead, Thingelstad says there is considerable room for competition, given the large demand by farmers to fight rootworm.

"That's the nature of the beast: we can only launch when we have a (product) ready to go," he said. "It only brings competition to the marketplace. American farmers will like it. It's definitely going to be a very good product."

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