Re: cutworm damage on leaves
- To: s*@egroups.com
- Subject: [sibrob] Re: cutworm damage on leaves
- From: J*@aol.com
- Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2000 22:30:07 EDT
Jim, in our garden cutworms enjoy snacking on siberian foliage until around
bloom time, then they find other hosts. They can wipe out newly planted
seedlings, no problem. This is an intolerable situation for us, so we have
fought them several ways. First we went out in the morning to look for
damaged leaves and scrape away the soil nearby. Seventy-five percent of the
time this yielded a small to medium sized caterpillar, but it was time
consuming. I got pretty good at reading the ground where the critter retired
for the day to hide and digest. I felt a little silly as the "tracker and
destroyer of caterpillars". Eventually I got the idea to go out with a
flashlight before bed and pick them off the leaves. This yielded hundreds of
pests the first few nights along with several slugs. I pickled them all in a
jar of beer (those who have employed "slug saloons" and have caught every
neighborhood insect but no slugs will appreciate the irony of this).
Finally we read an advertisement for nematodes that prey on cutworms and
decided to try it. They worked. No more cut worms for the year in the
field. They have to be reapplied every year since they are not hardy here.
This year we're going to try them on irises for borer. We'll let you know
how it goes.
Is anyone going to Iowa besides us? Marty
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