oh no!!!!!.....this is NOT good thing! First, pull back the mulch from the plant. Those little critters are hiding there until you go to bed at night so they can feast then! Sometimes I use "stakes" made from wire coat hangers around the very base of the plant up close to the stem. This prevents them from being able to wrap around the stem to crawl up.

I've linked an article that I thought was very informative. Even if you go organic, looks like you'll need to pull out the big guns...it's too early for these guys to be moving into the neighborhood!

Here is a link that might be useful: Organic cutworm control

Just stick a toothpick or similar dimensioned object right against the plant's stem, parallel to it. A cutworm needs to encircle the entire stem in order to cut it at all. Hence a toothpick will thwart the cutworm. I do this with all transplants.

George
Tahlequah, OK

Tilling the garden twice during the winter has cut down on our cutworm population. In years past I have lost as much as 25% of the broccoli transplants I put out. This year didn't lose one. And I didn't use the toothpicks or twigs as I usually do. I did lose two tomato plants that were planted in a bed that still had some winter weeds tho.

Like George and Paula say, the safest thing is a barrier. We don't use nails or coathanger pieces because we are too lazy to pick them back up. The toothpicks or twigs can just stay there.

Lynn,

Sorry your tomatoes are under attack. I understand just how frustrating that can be. Sometimes a tomato plant that was chewed off at ground level will resprout and grow back. If you haven't already yanked out those two, that might happen. If you'd rather take them out and replant, be sure the replacement plants get some sort of cutworm protection both above and below ground. Sometimes I use toothpicks or twigs, or even the mini-blind slat plant marker, which I insert into the soil as close to the main stem as possible. I don't see climbing cutworms every year, but when I do, or if someone who lives around here mentions that they have them, I bring out the big guns---bamboo skewers. I break each skewer in half and insert in a couple of inches into the ground and leave the rest sticking up above ground.

I don't think I have had much, if any, cutworm issues since I started using the organic Slug-Go Plus for control of pillbugs and sowbugs about three years ago. I think the Spinosad in it must affect cutworms, because I don't think the other active ingredient (iron phosphate) would.

When I use bamboo skewers, I pull them out after the plants have reached a couple of feet in height and have a nice sturdy main stem. Otherwise, the skewers can poke you when you're reaching in to pick a low-hanging tomato.

Good luck getting rid of those nasty little cutworms. I'm seeing signs here that it may be a bad caterpillar year....I've been seeing a lot of them around. I try to coexist with the cats that become desirable butterflies and moths, but not with the really damaging ones like cutworms, corn earworms and tomato fruitworms.

Dawn

Thank you everyone for your guidance. First let me clarify my earlier statement about bringing home "one of each variety" of Dawn's tomatoes. What I meant was I only brought home one of each of the eight varieties I chose. I didn't want anyone to think I was overly greedy. lol Since I don't have seeds of those specific types, I'm out of luck to replace them. Maybe they'll miraculously grow back from their little stumps. If not, wonder what time Paula goes to sleep? :-P

After I discovered my mini tragedy, I raced in to post my SOS to the group and then raced back outside with a box of toothpicks to begin my preemptive strike against the little devils. I found one additional plant destroyed but it was one of mine so I didn't mind the loss quite as bad. So since the soil level critters are up 2 to 1 on the climbers, I guess I'll stick with toothpicks unless the scoreboard changes, then I'll definitely up my arsenal to the skewers. Yep, it's all out warfare now.

We typically till in soil amendments every year so it's good to know perhaps the continued tilling has helped keep them away in the past. Maybe I'll invest in some of the Slug-go stuff as a backup. Does that also work on cabbage worms? I used BT last year when they about ate up my brassicas but could never seem to get ahead of them.

Thank you again to everyone for your help!
Lynn

I had a similar problem with loopers on my broccoli. It seemed early to have plants getting stripped at the beginning of April, but they really did a number on it. Garlic pepper spray didn't deter them so I started picking. After several days I finally got them under control but what a mess.

Lynn,

Regular spraying of Bt and handpicking are all I do for cabbage worms on all the cole crops (kale, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, etc.).

The Slug-Go is just iron phosphate and it is great for snails and slugs and fairly effective on sow bugs and pill bugs.. The Slug-Go Plus is iron phosphate plus Spinosad, and it provides great control of snails, slugs, pillbugs and sowbugs. I read somewhere a few months back that many people like me who have been using Slug-Go Plus for the critters mentioned earlier are also seeing little to no cutworm damage. I don't think I've lost a tomato to cutworms in several years, so think it might be the Spinosad in the Slug-go Plus.

I have found Bt very effective on caterpillars of all kinds but you have to reapply it regularly, so I hand-pick them too. I DON'T like touching any bugs with my fingers, so I keep a box of disposable latex gloves handy and use a gloved hand to pick the cabbage worms off the cole crops. Or, you can carry a cup of soapy water and a ruler with you and, when you spot a caterpillar, use the ruler to flick it into the soapy water where it will drown.

And, by the way, I was pretty sure you meant you only took one of each variety that you wanted, not one of each variety that I brought. lol

Dawn

oh my....I just knew I should have kept the extra 500+ tomatoes that were left over.....perhaps I should recall them from the the FAA employees that swooped down like vultures to take them?

OH wait...I kept at least 10 for myself....carsonsmimi, what were they? Maybe I'll have some luck and can save some seeds!

Here's another idea..

Here is a link that might be useful: cutworm collar

Can you use the big aluminum vegetable cans and place around the tomatoes? Will this help? Do you leave them in place throughout the growing season?

I hope, you squischd the darn critter! :)

Never tried toothpicks, but usually use paper collars.

Moni

Regina,

I've had better luck with toothpicks, bamboo skewers or even sticks picked up from the yard. We have climbing cutworms here in the south and they seem able to evade those cans and climb right up the stem and cut off the plants above ground. About 7 or 8 years ago they took out my green beans that way. My DH grew up in Pennsylvania where they used the cans sunk into the ground, but they only had the in-the-ground kind of cutworms there, and not the southern climbing ones. You'll just have to try and see what works best for you. We all do a lot of experimentation to figure out what works best in our various locations and soils.

Dawn

If ever I have lost a plant to cutworms, it has gone unnoticed. I use toothpicks religiously and until this week would have told you it works well. This year, however, I've lost 6 tomatoes already to cutworms. I caught one this evening in the act, just before dark. I use two toothpicks per stem, but I think this year the cutworms are on steroids, because they are pushing the toothpicks out of the way. I let my dinner of smoked pork roast, German red cabbage, and corn on the cob get cold so I could install bamboo skewers on all my plants. I hope the deeper soil penetration will hold them in place better. I'm sick.

Seedmama,

Sorry about the tomato plants....and don't the cutworms seem late this year?

Maybe your plants will resprout from the roots? I have had them do that several times, but not always.

I need to check on my plants tomorrow and make sure I haven't missed doing cutworm protection for any of them. Y'all's cutworm problems are making me nervous.

Dawn

Dawn,
I can't comment on the lateness of cutworms, because honestly, to my knowledge, I've never had them. Common sense says they've been out there, getting tiny seedlings in rows before I knew they'd sprouted, but I've never lost a "specimen" plant to one. They were in a category with dragons and unicorns.

Truth be told, I've never had bunny damage before this year either. At this point, I don't care if it's the Year of the Bean or the Year of the Pepper. I just don't want The Year of the Pest Ridden Disaster Garden. I'm nervous too.

Well, even with toothpicks in place (extremely close to the stem) I've lost another tomato plant.... and I thought seed starting was the hardest part.

Lynn, try bamboo skewers like you'd use to make shishkabobs. You can buy them at places like Wal-Mart. At our Wal-Mart they're on the cooking aisle with stuff like oven thermometers and cooking utensils. Break one in half and insert each half on opposite sides of the plant. Or, if you're really paranoid, use two skewers (four pieces) per plant. You want to make it impossible for them to wrap themselves completely around the plant. When I use the skewers, I try to put at least 2" below ground and the rest above.

Seedmama, I'd never heard of anyone losing a specimen plant until a couple of years ago when it happened to someone on the tomato forum. I think that is the type of damage often blamed on the climbing southern cutworms.

As for rabbits, all that has ever worked for us is a rabbitproof fence, 2' tall so they can't climb it or shimmy over the top. We use poultry netting with either 1/2" or 1" openings. Small bunnies can wiggle through anything larger than that. Our yard is full of rabbits every night, all night long, and anything we don't fence gets eaten. I think electric fencing would work, but we haven't tried it. Some people sprinkle blood meal on the ground around their plants to keep rabbits away, but I don't know how successful it is.

Dawn

Something ate the crap out of my broccoli and I just planted toms next to it. I only had a few and just chalked them up to a loss but I'll be peeved if they move over to the tomatoes (I did pick what green worms off I saw). Should I do anything?

Amanda,

It depends on what ate your broccoli. Was it eaten off at the ground by rabbits, or cut off by cutworms, or just eaten into ragged bits of leaves by caterpillars? We can't really suggest what you can/should/might want to do unless you can figure out what pest ate your broccoli.

If you have rabbits getting into your yard and garden, the only sure thing I've ever seen work every time is a good fence.

Dawn

Yikes...thanks for the heads-up. I just went out to insert skewers next to my beloved tomato plants (most of them are from you...thank you!). My DH saw me heading outside in PJ's, with something in my hand and a grin on my face and asked what I was doing...but I didn't have the nerve to tell him (he already thinks I'm over the edge)so I just said "oh nothing"! Tee hee hee! Thanks again for the warning! I'm determined to have tomatoes this year if nothing else!

Well, the hits just keep on coming. The bamboo skewers are now in place around the tomatoes and peppers. But while looking over the potatoes, I found two plants that were neatly cut right at the soil line in an identical fashion as the tomatoes. Do these bloody worms attack everything in sight?

Lynn - I think it's time to pull out the bigs guns...as in BT or something else a bit stronger. From everything I've been seeing and reading, the insects could be a really big problem this year. We've already had to spread wheat bran on the potatoes to fight potatoe bugs. I find it at Homeland in the special flour section over on the baking aisle. It's about $1.99 a bag. I think the way it works is that it inflates in the insect's digestive system and well, you can guess what it does to them. =)...keep us posted?

Paula

Cutworms even eat onions. Before we learned that a double tilling over the winter would lesson cutworm damage we planted a row of onions in newly tilled soil and lost almost all of them. The moth lays eggs in the soil and the larva or pupa overwinter in the soil. Tilling kills a lot of them. Too I think the moths are attracted to soil with weed cover--or later in the season vegetable cover. (Depending on the species there can be several generations a summer.) Since the cats eat plants a bare piece of ground isn't attractive as a nursery.

This is the first year we've used straw in the garden as our mulch. Could this be part of the problem as to why we've got cutworms this year but never had them before? There are no areas of tall weeds anywhere near our garden. Everything else is lawn that is kept mowed very frequently. The straw is the only new 'grass' around the veggies. Maybe this has nothing to do with it but thought I'd throw it out there for consideration.

Yes, I'll be spraying with BT since we have a few other things being nibbled on. The strangest thing is that the cabbage worms have been seriously munching on my radish leaves. I thought radishes gave off a certain smell that kept such things away but apparently they're in love with my Reisenrot radishes (which have quickly become our favorites this year).

I'm learning WAY TOO MANY lessons this spring. lol

I always wrap a strip of newspaper around the stems of my new tomato plants - learned this from my grandmother who was a "prodigy" of the great depression and raised a HUGE garden every year in the middle of the city on a neighborhood sized lot. Anyway, "Grummy" always wrapped the stems in newspaper - a wide enough stip that it goes about atleast an inch below and an inch above the ground. I've always followed her advice and honestly, never once had a cut worm.
~Laura

Cutworms can attack everything in sight if they choose to do so. Sometimes the climbing cutworms become discouraged after they climb a few inches and give up before they reach the top of the bamboo skewers. However, some of them will climb above the skewers. Some people use paper plates or aluminum pie pans wrapped in a cylinder around the tomato plant's stem or wrap the stems in foil. I've never had to resort to that, but I've never been hit that hard (well, once, but it was only bean seedlings and it is quick and easy to start over with beans) by cutworms.

Climbing cutworms can climb anything and some are known to climb up into fruit trees to cut off fruit, leaves, or flowers. I've never seen that happen in my fruit trees.

They operate after dark, so you can go out with a flashlight and see if you can catch them in the act. After they eat, they often burrow into the soil (and not terribly deeply) so if you find a newly damaged plant, you may find the culprit in the soil there near the plant.

All of you who are suggesting cardboard or paper collars are correct in thinking they work for subterranean cutworms, but unless you make those collars go above ground up for 4 or 6 or 8 inches or more, they are not effective against the climbing cutworms. I gardened for over 20 years before I ever had problems with a climbing cutworm and they are very hard to combat because they can outclimb anything you use to try to thwart them. I wonder if they are worse now than they were a couple of decades ago, because I always helped my dad, neighbors and relatives with their veggie gardens when I was a kid in the 1960s and 1970s, but I never saw damage from a climbing cutworm and never even saw a climbing cutworm until after we moved to Oklahoma in 1999.

One organic remedy is to plant garlic around plants to protect them from cutworms but I haven't tried it myself. I wonder if one of the garlic barrier sprays might repel them?

Cutworms are often a problem in spring, but also can continue to be a problem throughout the gardening season because they produce multiple generations in the southern parts of the country.

Bt is usually not terribly effective in the short-termm because it takes a day or so for it to affect them enough that they stop eating, but it will save future plants, if not the one they're currently chewing on.

Having lots of flowers that attract tiny beneficial wasps (or buying and releasing beneficial wasps) help with all kinds of caterpillar problems because the wasps parasitize caterpillars. The problem is they'll attack caterpillars of desirable butterflies too.

I've linked a page from Planet Natural below because it lists several things you can use to control cutworms including sprinkling DE on the ground around your plants or releasing wasps. Most of the products listed by Planet Natural (which, of course, they happen to sell) may be found locally if you have a nursery or farm store that carries a full line of organic products. I've never seen Eco-Bran anywhere except at Planet Natural though.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Ideas for Cutworm Control From Planet Natural

I've now lost 8 tomatoes and peppers to cutworms, despite having taken all my traditional precautionary measures. These guys are not acting in accordance with convention. I went out Saturday evening before the sun was even on the horizon, and caught one in the act. Sunday morning about 10 am his cousins were openly scooting across the concrete drive way. A particular pepper that was clearly intact during Sunday am inspection was severed sometime during the day on Sunday. I found it about 4 pm.

This morning when I went to check for damage, an armadillo had graciously relieved me of part of the worm population, digging up a habanero in the process. We had an armadillo problem several years ago. When we got rid of the grubs, the armadillos moved on. I'm seeing the connection.

I'll be using Bt in the edible area today, and researching what I'll use on the lawn. I know there will be delayed effectiveness, but better today, than two days from now, since barrier methods are not working.

Separately, I have pillbugs in my garden like white on rice. Yes, I know they are decomposers, but the population has exceeded what I can tolerate. I do not have slugs or snails. I learned this morning that Horn Seed carries Spinosad under the label of Fertilome Borer, Bagworm and Tent Caterpiller Control. I've asked hubs to pick some up on the way home from work.

I have considered the possibility that pillbugs could be doing the damage, and not cutworms, but the evidence clearly points to cutworms. First, having seen them in the act. Second, the pillbugs congregate where there is organic material to be eaten, so I keep the mulch away from the stem of the plant. Third, pillbugs tend to eat small seedlings, and I'm getting damage on plants with stems almost a half inch in diameter. I am still going to treat for them, because as I said, their numbers have simply exceeded my tolerance level, and I'll soon have small seedling of beans, okra, cucumbers, etc. that I don't want to lose. They've had their reign for the last several years, and enough is enough.

Dawn,
Rabbits have been kept at bay by a simple fence. I'm hoping they don't get smarter. The leaves were eaten by some kind of green crawley thing. Cut worm or caterpillar? I thought cutworms were a type of caterpillar? These are green, small and leave the stem alone but dessimate the leaves. Tomatos still are looking good but are too little to put bamboo skewers in.

Seedmama,

I am sorry to hear the carnage continues.

I have seen more caterpillars of all types this year (except tent caterpillars) and I am seeing them everywhere....in the soil, in the mulch, in the compost pile, crossing the driveway, etc. etc. etc. The other morning I found a cutworm crawling up the driveway and he was moving away from the garden. I assumed his GPS system was malfunctioning. Even worse, I'm seeing the moths everywhere. It looks like it will be a bad caterpillar year.

I had huge problems with sow bugs and pill bugs for several years. They would eat every vegetable seedling that sprouting or that I transplanted into the soil. I first started using Slug-Go because someone told me the iron phosphate in it that targets the snail and slugs would also kill some of the pill bugs and sow bugs. It did. I used it for a couple of years, and then they came out with Slug-Go Plus, which has iron phosphate and spinosad (and which is labeled for sow bug and pill bug control because of the spinosad), and it seems to work much more better, so I am even happier. I think this is my fourth year of treating the veggie beds for pill bugs and sow bugs and I have fewer and fewer of them every year. It isn't like I want them to go completely away....I mean, where would we be without our decomposers? But, I do want to see their population at a much lower level than it was in about 2004-2006.

When I used only the iron phosphate product, it seemed to have no effect on cutworms. After I started using the iron phosphate/spinosad combination product, I began seeing fewer and fewer cutworms. I strongly believe there is a connection. I know I'll always have cutworms because transient moths will fly in and deposit eggs, but I hope that I'll be able to keep them at a minimal level.

I believe this is the worst year for cutworms since we've lived here, based on talking to local folks and also on the number of folks on this forum who are having trouble. I'm not having cutworm issues (knock on wood) so far.

I believe I'm seeing a developing grasshopper problem. The grasshopper hatch is late here, but it has begun and I'm not liking the numbers I'm seeing.

Sopamanda,

Whatever is eating the broccoli, then, is likely a cabbage looper or imported cabbage worm. Cutworms are caterpillars and it could be them, but I know that cabbage loopers and cabbage worms are the common broccoli pests we see here at this time of year. Spraying the plants with a product containing Bt 'kurstaki' every 7-10 days will take care of the worms. They'll stop feeding shortly after ingesting Bt and will day about a day or two later. Some of the products that contain this form of Bt are Thuricide, Caterpillar Killer and Dipel.

You also can hand-pick the caterpillars and drop them into a bowl of water to die. If you have any children handy who are old enough to pick the green caterpillars off the plants (without harming the plants) and simply drop them into a coffee can or plastic bowl, pay them a penny or two for every green caterpillar they pick off the plants and bring to you.

Dawn

Dawn, I concur on grasshoppers. And so far, I'm only seeing brown ones, as opposed to green ones. Makes them very hard to see amidst the mulch. Crunch.

That's exactly what happened to my broccoli. I had to resort to hand picking the loopers.

I also had some trouble with some tomatoes in one bed getting some kind of black spot so I picked up a neem oil product from Lowes. It was the Garden Safe Ready-to-Use Fungicide 3. It isn't straight neem oil, but rather the "Clarified Hydrophobic Extract of Neem Oil". It is listed for organic gardening and is OMRI listed. It not only takes care of several common bacteria and fungus problems, but also many common destructive insects and caterpillars (anything that eats your plants and thereby ingests the compound) while being non harmful to humans, pets, birds, or beneficial insects.

This is my first experience with neem oil extracts, but the infected plants are perking up and turning green again, the insect population in the garden is under much better control, and I haven't seen a looper or any other caterpillar for the last week since I first sprayed so I'm impressed so far.

I sprayed yesterday with Bt. I know I'll have to take some more hits for it to be effective, but I have to start somewhere. The damage this morning was cut off branches instead of main stems, further suggesting climbers. I hate to see the little armless plants, but at least they still have a chance.

Dawn, I appreciate your suggestion of spinosad for pill bugs. That regimen begins tomorrow.

Seedmama,

You certainly have my sympathy and I hope the spinosad works for you as well as it has for me.

I had a cutworm year like you're having this year several years ago and couldn't grow a single bean plant that entire growing season...they got every single plant that sprouted no matter how often I replanted. After they stopped being such a problem, the issue became the pill bugs and sow bugs. Now that I've pretty much neutralized them, I'm guessing it will be either grasshoppers or blister beetles this year. To quote the great Roseann Roseannadanna "It's always something".

Lynn, I forgot to say that I don't think the straw is a contributing factor, although I've never seen any research done to confirm that...it is just a gut feeling. Every year it seems like there is something that is the out-of-control pest of the year, and this year I think it just happens to be cutworms. I have used hay, straw, grass clippings and chopped leaves as mulch for well over a decade and haven't seen a corresponding increase in cutworm problems. If anything, the more I've built the soil and used heavy compost, the fewer pests I've seen. I know that with some pests, like Colorado Potato Beetles, the use of straw mulch is advocated because it helps make it harder for the beetles to find the foliage to chew on. It is too bad that it doesn't have the same effect on cutworms.

Dawn

You guys have got me really scared....I think I'm just going to go ahead and purchase some Bt and spinosad to be ready! Our place has been virtually untreated for anything for well over 40 years so we are still battling carpentar ants...I'm not gonna let the other critters think they've found their "utopia"!!

Seedmama - I've STILL got about 6 or 7 of Dawn's tomatoe trees that I haven't given away or gotten in the ground. Let me know if you'd like them or want to know their type. I think at least 3 are Brandymasters. I honestly have run out of space for any more tomatoes...dang it!