Re: Pod Damage
- Subject: Re: Pod Damage
- From: "* G* C* <j*@cox.net>
- Date: Tue, 3 Jul 2007 09:41:18 -0500
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Vicki -- I suffered just such damage
earlier this season, posted a photo, and received these answers from Donald
Eaves and Linda Mann:
Donald: Looks like cutworm damage to me. They will crawl up the stalk at night
and then crawl back down before daylight and hide in the surface of the soil during the day. Usually they will crawl the same stalk again, or one very near the following night. Solutions are a flashlight and mushing sometime after it's gotten quite dark. Taking some Sevin dust and sprinkling that over the pods will deter further damage. The best solution I've found for cutworms are a beetle I call the 'ammonia beetle'. These are shiny black or irredescent green. The name I use comes from the fumes (no other word will do) they emit when disturbed. I learned that lesson in grade school after I stuck my nose in a mayonnaise jar that I'd partially filled with them. Nearly asphyxiated myself. Those beetles do love cutworms, though, and can be seen dragging the largest ones across the surface of the soil at midday on the hottest of days. They tend to be a nuisance bug in offices and I used to gather them up and bring them home and release them. My cutworm population suffered a big hit and this wet year is the first I've seen of much damage and it's still minor. I probably thinned out the beetles somewhat fighting grasshoppers, but fortunately didn't eliminate them. Keeping these beetles around is a great long-term solution for cutworms. Damage will be insignificant and rare if you can keep the beetles around. Linda: Griff, it looks like common stalk borer (NOT dreaded iris borer) or some other kind of moth larvae. Common occurrence here. I did a lot of stalk borer hunting last summer and it seems to have helped a lot here. They often hit the stalks as well as pods. When I only have a few pods, I sometimes do surgery to get out the larvae - razor blade or scalpel the hole big enough to find the larvae, then fish it out with forceps. They eat and damage some of the seeds, but not all. So, now you know as much as I do. I'll be opening those pods soon, and we'll see then what the seed situation is. -- Griff
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