I was thinking it might happen this year, since it is so dry this month...squirrels got into my corn as well.

I had a block#1 started and then I filled out the rest of the rows with block#2, delayed by 3 weeks or so. This was Bodacious, a 75 day yellow SE. I have grown Incredible (85 day yellow SE) the last few years with no trouble but figured I'd try this shorter one for the first couple blocks to get earlier corn. The first block came in on its own without me having to hand pollinating. First ears came in. Some initially had 2nd ears going, just a few days later, but most 2nd ears were delayed some and I could see that the pollen ran out. Still I did not hand pollinate. I wanted to see what it would do, hands off. Those first ear's silk started getting darker, maybe 10 days back. The stalks kind looked rough on a lot, and I noticed holes in some ears and some stalks. I started picking 4 days back,
Day 1 took 8,
Day 2 took 8 the next day and already I saw some ears that looked disturbed. Like a bug eaten one was super sugary, but maybe peeled back a bit as well.
Day 3 took 8, then looked through the rest closely. There were a bunch damaged, 4 or 5. A lot of stalks have bore holes near the bottom. And almost all the second ears that weren't solid cobs were drying/rotting. So I picked them all and chopped the stalks off. I'd say about 1/2 the stalks had european corn borer holes through the cut right above the roots. All together I pulled 92 ears from the first block, but the last 66 may have significant damage, bug or squirrel. I put them in the fridge for now.
Day 4 looked at the 2nd block( adjacent to first) and even though they are not near ripe, being 3 weeks delayed, now a bunch of them were torn up. So I cut down the second block. No corn borer holes on them. I left the ears on the stalks and brought the stalks home. I may get something out of them. Somewhere around 3 doz stalks.

So...I planted two blocks next to each other. That was breaking a rule I made a few years back. And I did it not once, but twice. Blocks 3 and 4 are adjacent. With the Incredible the last few years I have not had any squirrel damage. But once they get in there...they come back daily. And the next block, if any ears are showing, gets ripped up just as bad. This corn taste about the same as Incredible, I don't believe it is much sweeter, like the supersweet that used to get ripped up. It has been so dry though, that I almost expected it, honestly. We'll see if they go after the tomatoes now that I took the corn down.

The unexpected was the European Corn Borer...which I admit does not make much sense since Maize is a new world crop...but I won't argue with the book. Says it was first discovered near Boston 50 years ago (book is a dated golden guide) and they will bore into other types of plants as well. I take it to be a moth that ate something else for millions of years but when it found corn grown in europe, it earned itself a proper name. These things gnaw a BB size hole in and then turn, usually down it seems, right through the heart of the stalk. I have never seen these before. Earworms, sure, but not borer. But, there are a few acres of corn planted about 150 yards west of my blocks, prevailing upwind that is, so I imagine the smell was on the wind, and some of these moths caught the scent of all that corn but shortstopped at my little blocks. This is the first time since I've been growing sweet corn blocks that there is a corn planted nearby. It seems notable that the younger block of corn does not have any damage from borer while the older block had approx 50% affected.

I just hope there are no borer or squirrel damage in the next corn, blocks 3 and 4. Probably a month or more out from that being ripe. I was really hoping a for a good week or more of fresh corn from each of these initial blocks. I do have the other half of block #2 in my backyard, but that is only a couple dozen if that and lots of squirrels here as well.

Thanks for that information, JR. I'm sorry both squirrels and now borers got in there. I don't think we have the borers here... yet, as I've not heard anything about them but now I know what to look for.

When it gets so dry out there we usually put out pans of water under the trees that the squirrels mainly use. This year we've oddly had rain in July but we still put the water pans out and they've still grown a taste for tomatoes.

How many rows are in your blocks of corn? We almost did some Bodacious this year along with the Silver Queen but decided to do it or something similar next year instead of the popcorn, which was one of my "toys". There will be three corn beds next spring starting with a real early one, Spring Treat (67 DTM, can germinate in cooler soil), SQ and then Bodacious or other. Spring Treat is just that for us. It goes in mid April and we're eating corn the first week of June.

The publication dates are 1956, 1951, but there is an afterword with a 1974 mentioned. I must have took it to elementary school because I printed my name inside the front cover. Had to be printed late 70s or 80s but the ranges are likely from 1951. Really excellent, informative illustrations in those Golden Guides.
borer is on the right, worm headed downward, under the hose used to hold the page down

This year the bodacious was two double rows, so four lines of corn, 2 seeds per block in transplants. So the first block was as many as 8 stalks across, and probably 12 deep. It is probably 18"-22" in the double rows with space bed center to center of 36"-42"? Each bed over there is a little different spacing between them, but the double rows on each black ground cover are inside the yellow lines of 24". The big mistake was filling in another 4-5 holes of those rows for a block #2. The last two years I avoided that.

The Bodacious came up pretty well, was looking fine until this last few weeks of dry, and really just right before picking I started seeing the bore holes, and 2nd cobs not doing much, or even turning a rotten brown. If I had hand pollinated I would surely have noticed that sooner. But even if the second cobs took well, the bored stalks likely would not have grown the 2nd ears anyway.

I was thinking the other day that it didn't seem like the Bodacious was particularly faster than Incredible, but...that's not fair to say because I didn't grow any Incredible at this same time to compare. That would have been smarter, start a tray of each and transplant them at the same time. Wish I would have thought of that in April. They would have staggered themselves perfectly. I guess the squirrels may have done the exact same thing...

As for a Bodacious review, I'd say they taste about the same, look about the same. Pretty good, not spectacular. Cobs were smaller, and were expected to be, but it was really dry in July. But I am used to a large % of good second ears when planting the same way with Incredible and hand pollination and no borers or squirrel damage.