Friday, May 29, 2009

Ugh, cutworms!

Cutworms are decimating my gardens! They have taken out several plants already. They are simply everywhere in our neighbourhood, when it rains the streets are covered in the little nasties. Any tips on how to get rid of them, or at least keep them from killing all my new plants?

The birds have been having a crazy feast on them but when I look, I can count about 20 in every square foot of lawn and garden! Ughhhhhh...! We need help!

Edit: for some cutworm solutions that worked for me, see my post here!

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For baby:
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For the home:
  • Win a Windex All In One outdoor glass cleaning tool at Barefoot Mommy. Anything that makes cleaning windows easier is fine with me! Ends June 5th and there will be five winners!
  • You can also win the Windex All in One at Tara's View of the World - this one is for Canada only! Ends June 3rd.
  • Win a $100 Home Depot gift card at Today's Green Construction! (Here's the direct link to the giveaway) Amazing. I know what I'd buy - diatomaceous earth, plants and seeds to replace the ones we lost to the evil cutworms, and I'd make a start on supplies to build our pergola this summer. Ends June 20th.

3 comments:

  1. That totally sucks about the worms destroying your plants! Hey, do they just eat the leaves of the plants or the whole thing? I recently noticed that a couple of my plants are missing all their leaves (looks like something ate them) and have been wondering what could possibly be the cause..

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  2. They eat the leaves ragged, with holes in them, so they look lacy. But the worst damage is that they will eat through the stem, cutting off the entire plant from the ground up. The cutworms are about an inch or so long, brownish with stripes, they kind of look like caterpillars - they are the larvae of moths.

    Sometimes they take the leaves down into the soil so if the leaves are gone entirely try taking a trowel and disturbing the earth around the plant, you might find the leaves just under the soil surface.

    I am at the end of my rope with these things, they're EVERYWHERE and it's so gross. I'm going to buy some diatomaceous earth to put in the garden (it cuts them up so they die) and put cardboard collars around my plants... but they have taken out so many plants already and are now starting on my radishes, peas, strawberries.... ARGH

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  3. That sounds horrible! Whatever pests I've got, they must be different from yours, because the leaves and some of the blossoms of my plants are either partially or completely eaten and you can see a clean "bite mark" pattern around the edges of what's left. So it's probably either snails or slugs, though I have yet to see the little buggers. I did see some spiders running around and an earwig I think, but I have no idea if they're the ones to blame. The only good thing is that the pests now seem to be eating some of the weeds, too.. Ah, the joys of gardening... I did eat one of my very own radishes today, so I guess it's not all bad. :D
    I hope you manage to exterminate those nasty things!

    ReplyDelete

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