Cutworms/Slugs/Earwigs

14 years ago

About a week ago my hostas started being decimated by something. The information on GardenWeb seemed to indicate that the major damage was being caused by cutworms because the eaten areas were huge. I scratched the surface of the earth around some of the affected hostas and did indeed find a few cutworms. I treated the affected hostas by sprinking cornmeal around the hostas being careful to avoid the petioles.

My husband applied diatomectous earth around our house foundation yesterday.

I was outside around 10 pm with flashlight in hand to check on my hostas. I found only 3 cutworms in my hosta beds. They were about an inch long and I almost mistaked them for dry litte twigs. One hid on top of the leaf at the base and the others were on the petiole.

I had applied the ammonia drench to my hostas in the spring. I found no slugs on my hostas. I did, however, find baby earwigs under a couple of my hostas. I also find a lot of white spiders in my hostas and wonder whether they are beneficial or harmful.

I don't know whether the cornmeal worked. I just wanted to report back about my experience. I will try to be more scientific in my approach next year.

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Comments (6)

Babka NorCal 9b
14 years ago
Try Captain Jacks Bug Brew. It has Spinosad which goes after bugs. Certified for organic gardening. So safe you could almost drink the stuff.

-Babka
coll_123
14 years ago
Hey, three cutworms is a good nights work! I saw some munched areas on Tokudama F the other day and couldn't find the fiend. Saw more damage today on it today....grrrrrrrr... and looked again and found him under a rock. It's so satisfying to find them! I have been using a little Sluggo plus which has the Spinosad, but I have to apply it under little cages so that the chipmunks don't eat it all, which is a hassle. I despise cutworms!
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aka_margo
14 years ago
I have never had the problem with cutworms that I do this year. They are eating everything! The slugs haven't been a problem at all since it's been so dry. I have Monterey Insect Spray which also has Spinosad in it, so I think I might try that. You just have to be very careful around bees with Spinosad since it will kill them. I have also heard not to use it around ponds.
Jen
bkay2000
14 years ago
It's the mild winter we had. The Dallas Arboretum's hosta gardens were decimated by cutworms. I had to spray for them and that's the first time I've ever had the problem. There are so many aphids in my trees that everything is sticky. There are flies everywhere; gnats are out of hand. You can barely stay outside because of the mosquitos. They found the West Nile Virus in mosquito populations here at least 6 weeks earlier than usual. It's just a bad bug year across most of the U.S. Hopefully we'll have some winter this year and next year will be better.

bkay
ogrefcf
14 years ago
Never had problems with Cut worms till this year. Little buggers are starting to piss me off. I agree with Bkay, warm weather is making it bad for bugs.
lonestarhostababe
14 years ago
I thought I was jinxed or something! The cutworms were absolutely horrendous and ruined the looks of so many of my hostas. I'm having foliar nematodes on several. And NOW something is visiting at night and chewing the leaves off my most beloved and/or most expensive hostas. Lord I hope we have a better time of it next year.

Judy