by Reynold Conger

Created on: May 28, 2011

Cutworms can break a gardener's heart.  Cutworms will attack a wide variety of plants, especially when they are young and tender  You have a flat of healthy plants..  So you, the gardener, spend a lot of time preparing the soil, digging holes and mixing compost into the soil at the bottom of the hole.  You have carefully put the plants into the holes and patted down the soil.  Such beautiful plants.  You are almost as proud of the brave little plants as you are of your children.  With careful watering, the plants survive transplant shock.  For several days they stand tall.  You can almost see them growing.

Then one morning you go out to inspect your garden and some, if not most of the plants, are lying on the ground, their stems neatly cut off at ground level.  The cutworms have attacked.

Of course, the victims can be any of a number of types of plants, but in my garden, tomatoes, peppers and beans were the most heartbreaking victims.

To protect you tender plant children, you need to be proactive.  Long before you see the first cutworm victim, you must go after the cutworm.  A number of insecticides are available that kill cutworms.  Of course, they must be applied at the time you plant the plants or before.  There are two problems with insecticides.  Often they do not kill all the cutworms.  Your application may not be uniform or rain may dilute the insecticide, making it less than completely effective.  You may kill thousands of cutworms, but if one cutworm gets through and has breakfast on your plant, the plant is dead.  The other problem is that insecticides are not environmentally friendly.  Over use or improper application are the two largest risks to the environment.  Today some gardeners strive to be organic.  Of course they will look for other options.  Some gardeners are willing to use an insecticide if necessary, but want to minimize the use of toxic chemicals in their garden.  These gardeners frequently are too timid to use enough insecticide at the right time.

Bacillus Thringus (BT) is a bacteria that kills insect larvae.  Powders containing this beneficial bacteria are commercially available. If BT is present in your garden when the cutworms arrive, the cutworms become ill and die before they can do much damage.  This treatment meets the criteria for organic gardening, but like insecticides, it must be applied in the proper

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