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Black cutworms can wreak havoc on your garden, so learn these tips for identification and control.
Identify Cutworms and Cutworm Damage
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Identification
How to Identify Cutworms
Cutworms feed on a wide variety of vegetables and flowers, so any young seedlings or transplants will be susceptible. To identify cutworms, try patrolling your garden at dusk or during the evening and inspect around the bases of plants. They are also partial to cloudy days.
Different species range in color from grey, pink, green and black and can be as long as two inches. They can be solid, spotted, or striped. They tend be curled up when they are not on the move. Cutworms are stealthy, and tend to feed only at night, hiding during daylight hours.
Black cutworms, Agrotis ipsilon, are one of the most common cutworms. They have small dark spots on their bodies and mature into the dark sword-grass moth.
Variegated cutworms, Peridroma saucia saucia, are another common species. They are mottled brown and have a faint white stripe down their backs.
Adult cutworms are moths of dark wing colors. They are usually brown or gray, and get to be about 1½ inches long with a 1½-inch wing length. Keep an eye out for the adults, because the females will lay eggs in dry soil after they mate.
Identifying Cutworm Damage
Cutworms chew through plant stems at the base. They primarily feed on roots and foliage of young plants, and will even cut off the plant from underneath the soil. In most cases, entire plants will be destroyed; they do a lot of damage in no time at all. Even if only the bottom of the plant is destroyed, the top will often shrivel and die.
In the summer, cutworms sometimes crawl to the tops of plants and do damage there. Be careful not to mistake this damage for slug or cabbage worm damage.
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Hi Kieran,
It's hard for us to know what type of worms you have. You may have regular earthworms that come up to the surface of the soil when it rains. Earthworms are good for the soil. They aerate and enrich the soil, digest and break down organic matter, and improve soil texture. We suggest that you check with your neighbors to see if they have the same problem and maybe bring a couple of the worms to a local garden center for advice.
It does not sound like cutworms. You may have leafcutting bees but we are not positive. Are the leaves whole or have they been chewed on? What type of plants are effected?
You can spray your plants with a liquid soap water mixture to see if it will help.
You have lawn grubs, sometimes called white grubs. These are larvae of different kinds of beetles. The most common one is the Japaneese beetle. Please see our Japaneese beetles page for ways to get rid of the grubs. http://www.almanac.com/content/japanese-beetles
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Hi Lynsee,
We don't recommend insecticides for cutworm control. Instead use parasitic nematodes or certified organic BTK (Bacillus thuringiensis, var. kurstaki). You can make a bait with BTK by mixing it with rolled oats and molasses. Sprinkle it over the planting area before planting in the spring. The cutworms will feed on the bait and hopefully die before your seeds and plants go in.