Cutworms

Controlling pests in the home garden is a challenge for anyone trying to grow their own veggies. In the south its particularly difficult because we don't have those beneficial winter freezes that helps to kill off some of those soil living creatures. As I have written about before, solarizing the garden during the hot summer sun is one way to help cook the dirt and kill off the bad pests living in the dirt.

I learned the hard way about cut worms a few seasons ago when I discovered young tomato plants suddenly shrivled up and fallen over. Upon closer inspection, I noticed the stem was completley sawed off, like some miniature lumberjack had come in the middle of the night and chpped town the big, young tomato tree. After a bit of research, I now know that cutworms in the ground love young, newly planted veggies and will whack them down rather quickly. I now use cardboard coffee cup collars when planting new seedlings in the garden. It acts as a barrier for those lumberjacking little worms.
Sooooooooooo, the other day when I was out and about in the garden I noticed a few of my green beans had been visited by the worms. Now, it's easy enough to put some collars around each tomato plant or broccoli plant, but an entire row of green beans???? Not exactly practical to do that. For now, I'll look on the bright side and consider the little worm was only trying to help me thin out the row a bit. I'll secretly hope that as the young green bean plant fell and the little guy yelled "timber", the young green bean stalk gave him
a nasty bump as it landed on his head!