Insect damage evaluations were performed in 3–26 Pilot Phase studies on the two GM IR hybrids and the conventional control (Table 3, Supplementary Fig. 2). Results from the comparative analysis between the GM hybrid MON-89Ø34-3 × MON-88Ø17-3 and the conventional control showed statistically significant differences (p ≤ 0.05) for stalk borer tunnel length (0.02 vs. 0.18 cm), stalk borer tunnel number (0.00 vs. 0.04), Diabrotica root damage (0.01 vs. 0.02 rating), corn earworm damage (0.19 vs. 2.08 cm2), Spodoptera leaf damage (0.06 vs. 1.49 rating) and cutworm (Agrotis and/or Spodoptera spp.) damage (0.00 vs. 35.88 seedlings) (Table 3, Supplementary Fig. 2). MON-89Ø34-3 × MON-ØØ6Ø3-6 showed statistically significant differences (p ≤ 0.05) for corn earworm damage (0.11 vs. 1.91 cm2) and cutworm (Agrotis and/or Spodoptera spp.) damage (0.00 vs. 37.11 seedlings) (Table 3).