Author Topic: Any advice on cutworms (Read 4224 times)

suziequeue · « **on:** April 21, 2011, 08:15:33 am »

I have been advised that the devastation on my lettuce patch might be down to cutworms and I am inclined to agree - having read up on them.

Anybody any good ideas on how to manage them?

Organically/non-organically?

Susanna

Fleecewife · « **Reply #1 on:** April 21, 2011, 09:52:41 am »

You are likely to have cutworms if your veg patch was recently pasture - they are the larvae of daddy longlegs I think. They are thick grubs found just under the surface of the soil. Symptoms would be a plant suddenly looking as if it's struggling, say a lettuce going a dull bluey-green and wilted. When you pull at the top the whole thing will come away in your hand (the lettuce in your photo were still bright green and healthy) leaving the roots behind and you can see where the stem has been gnawed through. If you dig very carefully around in the roots you will find the fat grey grub still there. If you leave it, it will make its way to the next lettuce, or sweetcorn, or whatever, in the row and start all over again.
The organic way is to grow a green manure crop of mustard, which will (apparently) cause all the grubs in the soil to hatch and fly away. As they like pasture to lay their eggs they will not come back to your well-dug soil. Either that doesn't work, or the grubs I am seeing are something different, because I still get them after 16 years on this ground

I think your lettuce plants have more likely been got at by slugs, or birds, or mice (oddly mice love lettuce) or any one of a long list of suspects.

poppajohn · « **Reply #2 on:** April 21, 2011, 11:06:32 am »

Ditto all of Fleecwifes post! I answered on your other thread but container is the way! Its most important to screen all your compost as well, netting stops all the adult pests laying as well. Voles are my problem, I trap the mice and they are fed to my owl, I leave the voles to the weasels but they still cause chaos, I have given up on strawberries outside because of them and yes, they are in large pots under glass.
Derris dust used to be the answer but its now off the market, whatever your views on chemicals they tend to work, so if you are organic its adapting to your own patch.

suziequeue · « **Reply #3 on:** April 22, 2011, 07:33:14 am »

Thanks for your (repeated) responses Fleecewife and Poppajohn.

I thought I would put it up as a separate thread so that people browsing through the titles would see it.

I hope you didn't think I was re-posting because I wanted advice other than that which you had already given me

:-)

I will plod on. There doesn't seem to be any further damage today but I do have plenty of leatherjackets in the soil when I am going through it on occasion. The chickens love them :-) I will have another dig around today for any more. I think the main problem may be that the base of my raised bed was a load of mulch I made a couple of months ago from last year's grass clippings and last year's wood chippings.

Also - another lesson is to grow three times as much lettuce as I think I'm going to need!!!

Last year we grew lettuce and I couldn't have given a monkey's about it and it went mad!!! This year i have been a bit more organised and it's all going pete tong within a week of planting them out!!!

Typical

poppajohn · « **Reply #4 on:** April 22, 2011, 11:28:16 am »

lol! Just go with the flow!

NorthEssexsmallholding · « **Reply #5 on:** May 05, 2011, 07:38:04 pm »

i thought leatherjackets were the larvae of daddy long legs?

ellisr · « **Reply #6 on:** May 05, 2011, 07:49:38 pm »

let the chickens on they always clear my patch for me before I plant out and hours of entertainment watching them fight over a juicy grub

Fleecewife · « **Reply #7 on:** May 06, 2011, 12:27:14 am »

Quote from: NorthEssexsmallholding on May 05, 2011, 07:38:04 pm

i thought leatherjackets were the larvae of daddy long legs?

Ooops - I blame creeping senility

Yes cutworms are from moths.........

suziequeue · « **Reply #8 on:** May 06, 2011, 06:42:19 pm »

I was a bit confused about cutworms and leather jackets since they look similar to my untrained eye but - having dug up so many now and having had a closer look on Google images I can say that it's leatherjackets which seemed to be in the soil in such abundance

I expect I've got a bit of both since we have moths and crane flies in abundance - and the appearance of the plants was pathognomonic of cutworm but what I dug up looked pretty leatherjackety..... probably got the cutworm in there too but since I have fed all I found to the chickens and I have had no recurrence of the stem cutting problem I think it's taken care of..... for now.

I have planted in a load of Webbs Wonderful to bolster the number but they have gone a bit blousy.

Blonde · « **Reply #9 on:** May 08, 2011, 05:37:01 am »

Quote from: suziequeue on April 21, 2011, 08:15:33 am

I have been advised that the devastation on my lettuce patch might be down to cutworms and I am inclined to agree - having read up on them.

Anybody any good ideas on how to manage them?

Organically/non-organically?

Susanna

clear the ground of all vegetation and turn the land with a cultivator, leave 21 days and then do it again leave and then plant a week to 10 dyas later.