How Does a Cutworm Damage Plants?
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Introduction
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There are numerous types of cutworms. Cutworms are a variety of caterpillars. Caterpillars feed on the foliage of plants and can damage a plant to the point of death, since the leaves are the plant's lungs. Cutworms are normally found on corn. The leaves absorb carbon dioxide and convert it to oxygen in a process called photosynthesis.
Black Cutworms
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The black cutworm is less than a half-inch long and feeds on a plant's leaves. Most damage done to corn is from the black cutworm. The larger cutworms will cut the plants or drill into them, even under the surface, if the soil is dry. If the soil is wet, they will cut or drill through the plant above ground. The eggs are laid in the spring.
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Dingy Cutworms
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The dingy cutworm attacks young plants. It will eat the leaves but rarely cuts the plant. The dingy cutworm hatches in the fall, growing through the winter, and will feed during late April to early May.
Sandhill Cutworms
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The sandhill cutworm eats the leaves and will cut plants, similar to the black cutworm. The sandhill cutworm only lives in areas where the soil is very sandy. Because the soil is usually dry, this insect usually cuts the plant below the surface. The first sign of this worm is wilted leaves.
Glassy Cutworms
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The glassy cutworm eats the small seedling plants. They prefer a plant that is planted in a grassy field. This insect mostly lives below ground and produce one generation per year. They live through the winter as very small larvae, then emerge in the spring to feed on the new seedlings.
Bronzed Cutworms
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The bronzed cutworm will cut a seedling plant, but mostly feeds on grasses. They are more common in corn planted in a pasture, but you will rarely see them in corn or plants planted in a sod field, particularly if the crop is rotated with soybeans.
Stalk Borers
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The stalk borer eats tunnels in the aboveground stalk of the plant. You can tell if you have a stalk borer problem, as new leaves emerge with big holes in them. The first signs you will see if you have a stalk borer problem are plants wilting and turning brown.
Hop Vine Borers
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The hop vine borer eats tunnels into the stems of young plants. They start of in the underground part of the plant and tunnel up the stalk, hollowing out the base of the stalk. The first signs of the hop vine borer is wilting or death of the central whorl leaves. If a plant has less than eight leaves, it will usually die. Older plants end up being stunted and the leaves will wilt.
Sod Webworms
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The sod webworm creates damage much the same as the other cutworms. It will cut a plant off just at or just below the surface, and it will chew holes in the leaves. You will see webbed tunnels at the base of the plant and below ground if the plant is pulled. It will usually attack plants in grassy fields.
Conclusion
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If you are planting crops, particularly corn, keep them in a sodded field--do not plant in a grassy field. Also, you may have to use pesticides to keep the bugs out of the corn. Depending on what area of the country you are in, there are several ways to help rid of cutworms without using a pesticide, but no way is guaranteed. Control methods include plowing and fallowing fields in mid to late summer, plowing in the fall to expose larvae or bury the pupae and starving the cutworms out by cultivating the fields in the spring, then waiting to seed. People have also put foil or paper wraps or a form of cardboard collar around transplanted plants and placed toads in the garden.
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