Aileen,

Interesting problem. Before treating the ground, it is best to identify the culprit. Cutworms usually leave a fallen partially eaten seedling. Slugs or snails would be my first suspects. They feed at night (so do cutworms), so go out at night and see what is eating your seedlings. If it is slugs, sprinkle some iron-phosphate-based bait around your seedbed, and around the adjoining area as well. Sluggo is the slug bait that I use. It has the advantage of being safe and non-toxic to pets and the iron phosphate eventually acts as a beneficial nutrient for your plants.

If it is cutworms, you may catch one in the act at night. In the daytime, probe around the immediate area of a fallen seedling to find the cutworm. They are usually just under the surface within 1 to 4 inches from their last seedling victim. Destroy the cutworm. You can kill the juvenile cutworms by spraying all plants in the area with a BT based spray for caterpillars (larva of the butterfly and moth family). They are just small caterpillars in the juvenile stage, and can climb a small weed or garden plant and nibble on its leaves without killing the plant. If that plant has been sprayed, the juvenile cutworm won't live to change into the cutworm mode. If cutworms are a problem, you can also place paper collars around the stems of your seedlings to physically protect them from being felled by a cutworm.

If the culprit is not a cutworm or slug or snail, then some other measure is required, depending on the identity of the culprit. A rabbit or squirrel or cat would require different countermeasures. Identifying the culprit is the first step.

ZM