in my area.. they were only a problem for a few weeks.. and usually not worth the effort to go after them..

there was usually only one per plant.. and during the day.. if you just scratched around with a three prong fork.. you could find it and squish it ...

a lot peeps used to use sevin .. is that even a thing anymore???

now i have to look up to find out what these ugly turds turn into ...

ken

the 4th pic is pretty cool: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=cutworm+moths&t=ffab&iax=images&ia=images

this is what you probably wanted: https://pestcontroloptions.com/what-do-cutworms-turn-into/

I have some damage this year in spite of my ammonia drench. I thought it was slugs. Oh boy…..
What to do now???? I have limited ability to crawl on hands and knees these days……

debra

Very nice!

You can root around in the soil and see if they are still there and then smush them. You can spray both sides of the leaves with BT (Bacillus thuringiensis ), but they have to eat the leaves for it to kill them.

If I remember correctly, they only come out at night, so you can go out then with a flash light and pick them off your plant

bk

Old dirt, have same problem. I too as Debra did couple ammonia drenches and it did nothing. Slugs are coming but cutworms are there, my peppers are decimated.

I just got sluggo plus and will apply after rain.

My drenches took care of the slugs…..but I see a number of hostas in my front yard that have cutworm damage….. I have not seen this for several years now, so I wonder why it’s showing up now. We had bitterly cold weather around Christmas which you would think killed any eggs outside. It was a dryer winter as well. We only got a couple of big snows, not like winters I can remember 20 years ago. Climate change. I wonder if these conditions are responsible for the increase these year……

debra

I went digging today. Out of the 10 affected hostas, I only found one cutworm during the day. Also went out at night and found nothing. Oh well…..🤷🏼‍♀️

debra

debra - I have dug around several of the affected hostas and haven't found any yet. A few years ago when i did extensive vegetable gardening, I would find them regularly around the tomato plants.

I was wondering today if the loss of the big tree has anything to do with the increase in the cutworms???

Anyone have thoughts on this?

debra

debra - hmm, maybe the soil temperature being warmer?

Maybe, not sure. Was very warm in early May (80s) , but this week it’s been chilly again, highs in the low 60’s….. 50’s at night. Not usual for mid-June but not out of the range of possibilities. SE Wisconsin has been known to drop 20 degrees in a matter of minutes, tj can attest to that, but it’s not common.

debra

Bkay, does BT washes off the leaf? I have BT but I do water plants nearly daily so it is a big hassle to keep reapplying. 

Diring big rain I had lots of slugs coming to surface so I did another ammonia drench which seems to help some as well as applied sluggo plus.

Bumping this up…..as I get ready to do my fall vinegar drench for my hostas, I am still confused about what I should do regarding killing any cutworms eggs that may be present. Do I treat for them now like I do for slugs or do I treat in early spring?

If there’s a natural product or home remedy? 🤷🏼‍♀️
Anyone have suggestions?

debra

Cutworm season is over. It's a spring thing. It's kind of like birds. They lay eggs in the spring.

bkay

Thank you bkay. Will be prepared next spring!

debra

Unfortunately for us in Ontario, we can't get most of the products mentioned in this post to combat cutworms.

This year I think I had just about every kind of bug possible! I am pretty sure it was the cutworm that made big holes in my Elegans and a heuchera. One time I even had one in a pot! If I see damage, I do try to dig lightly around the plants that I see the damage in. The cutworms seem to stay in the same vicinity as where they are eating. I didn't appreciate seeing those big holes all season!

When complaining of all the insect damage, someone told me the reason for the abundance of insects was that we got regular rainfall especially at night. The summer was not hot for as long as usual either. Hopefully that's true because I want the garden to look better next year!