Once corn produces an ear or two that is it, the plant does not produce more ears.

janna_s ,
When the silks darken, dry up and just about disappear, the ears are ripe or even past ripe. I suspect they may already be past their prime. I would check an ear or two, and if fully filled out with kernals, harvest the whole crop immediately!

Ron T
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Janna:

Your question is not all that clear, and it is partly because of your focus on the silks of the corn ears. The function of the silks is to carry pollen grains to the developing corn kernels, and each kernel has a silk leading to it.

The tassels up on top are the pollen producers, and they normally appear first so that ripe pollen is ready to fall at precisely the time the silks are ready to receive it. This process happens in a matter of days after the silks emerge, then it is over, and after that neither silks nor tassels have functions to perform, though they are still there. If the process happens the way it is supposed to, in reasonably good weather, the little embryonic corn kernels will begin to grow.

But you don't say what is happening to the ears themselves. Have they begun to swell up nicely, and do they look anything like the ears you have seen at supermarkets? If so, your corn is probably fine, although I can't for the life of me say what happened to your silks, unless birds or something like that ate them. But if the ears are swelling, you no longer need them.

Normally, the condition of the silks is a pretty good indicator of whether or not the corn is ready to pick. Silks on mature ears are usually dark brown and start to dry up a little. But since there are no longer any silks to look at, you can peel down a tiny part of the husk on a single representative ear to check the development of the kernels. If they are fat and well developed, wait no longer. It is time to pick. If the kernels are still small and undeveloped, wait a little longer. But if you have allowed your silks to become so dry and brittle that they fell off, it is possible that your corn is way over mature, and might be a little tough and not so sweet.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Last summer, earwigs ate all my corn silks and hunkered down at the top of the ear inside the husk.
A bit off-putting, but no major harm done. These were European earwigs that will very happily munch on pretty much anything; not the eating-dead-leaves-and-stuff guys.