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Black cutworms can wreak havoc on your garden, so learn these tips for identification and control.
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—grey, pink, green, and black—and can be as long as 2 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, 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.
Still unsure? Try our Plant Problem ID tool to quickly diagnose pests and diseases.
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Comments
40 degrees Fahrenheit would probably not affect cutworms. Black cutworm eggs, for example, can withstand several hours exposure to freezing temperatures. We'd suggest putting cardboard collars or tin foil around the base of your plant stems, especially if they are young. Also sprinkle used coffee grounds and/or diatomaceous earth. You can also gently dig around the base of plants to locate any cutworms in the soil and remove them.
The heavy rain could have caused the peppers to wilt a bit. They don't like to sit in wet soil. Wait a couple of days to see if they will perk up. If not, check for bugs.
Hmm. Whether cutworms or another chunky caterpillar, that is certainly unpleasant. We'd definitely suggest getting better weatherstripping under the door, and perhaps a draft dodger might help as well. You might also try sprinkling regular clay cat litter along the outside of the door threshold to deter caterpillars from crawling inside--the caterpillars may not like the gravelly texture. (Coffee grounds or egg shells might attract other pests to your home. Diatomaceous earth, a fine powder used as a control for caterpillars, may track in more easily and possibly cause respiratory problems to people or pets who might be senstive.)
As for when they get inside the cupboards, if you don't think it would cause other pest problems, you might set a plastic plate of molasses in a section of the cupboard--this is said to act as glue to a caterpillar. Monitor every day and replace as needed.
You might also be interested in this page, where someone had a similar problem (no solution, however):
http://bugguide.net/node/view/360710