Having a garden is a good thing. It has a lot of benefits on you and nature. Flowers and plants make us feel good when we look at them. However, a garden attracts a number of insects and moths that can harm humans and plants.
Finding a plant cut through or lying on the ground is a bad experience. Pests are a huge threat to farm and gardens.
like most people, you may not like to see healthy plants damaged by Cutworm.
Before talking about how to get rid of them, what are cutworms ?
What is a cutworm?
Cutworm is a type of caterpillar that evolves to become a moth. It exists in different varieties, colors, and types, but the most common is black cutworm.
Cutworms eggs are laid in the fall, but the problem is their ability to survive the winter. When the spring comes, Cutworms find the best opportunity to kill the plants and cause a high amount of damage to healthy gardens.
How can it damage my plants?
The favourite victim of cutworm is young plants. Cutworm can chew through plants easily. Usually, it feeds on foliage and roots and sometimes cut off the plant from underneath the soil.
Cutworms cause huge damage in a short amount of time, which can destroy an entire plant easily. If the plant is destroyed from the bottom, the top will die in no time.
When the summer comes, cutworm causes severe injuries to the top of plants.
How to identify & get rid of it?
After knowing what can cutworm cause to your garden and plants, it’s time to know how to identify this pest, and how to get rid of it.
The ideal time to look for cutworm is around dusk. Usually, cutworm chews through plants near ground level, which is the best place to look for them.
Cutworms exist in a variety of shapes and are of then mistaken for grubs. The size of cutworm starts from a few centimetres to a few inches long.
As we mentioned before, the most common cutworm is the black one, but there are other cutworms with grey colour and pink colour.
Some of the cutworms are stripped while the others are plain coloured. The black worms have small dark spots across their bodies.
Getting rid of Cutworms
There are a lot of ways to get rid of cutworms. We will cover some of them here.
One of the home-made solutions is the cutworm collar. You can make the collars using different materials like paper, cardboard and foil.
The method is creating a tube that can be slid over the stem of the plant. The collar works more efficiently if it is a little bit underground.
If the infestation is not severe, handpicking is the quickest way. This technique requires soapy water and a flashlight.
When it’s dark, remove the cutworm manually and put them in the soapy water. However, if the infestation is severe, don’t use this method.
For a severe infestation, Chemical solutions are the best. Choosing a pesticide for cutworms depends on some circumstances.
The natural remedy, Bacillus thuringiensis, is very common, but it can cause damage to butterfly populations.