CULT: cutworms

After reading up on cutworm life history, it looks like all the chip mulch I've been putting between the rows of irises has deprived all the cutworms of their preferred weed food and driven them into the iris rows, where they have nothing much left to eat other than irises.
Apparently, this is the first brood of cutworms here - from what I read, with greatly reduced weed host plants, they probably will go elsewhere to lay their eggs. One of the management suggestions is to wait to remove weeds until <after> this first brood becomes adults in April, which is when I have done most weed removal in past years. 

Wish I'd known all this ahead of time...live and learn.
--
Linda Mann east Tennessee USA zone 7/8
East Tennessee Iris Society <http://www.korrnet.org/etis>
American Iris Society web site <http://www.irises.org>
talk archives: <http://www.hort.net/lists/iris-talk/>
photos archives: <http://www.hort.net/lists/iris-photos/>
online R&I <http://www.irisregister.com>

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