Most people think, with wet, cool conditions, cutworms are not a problem. For the most part that’s true, but the cutworm is a very diverse insect with many different species and types. This makes it difficult to typify their behaviour as a whole and risky to ignore them just because of the weather. They can damage plants in a variety of different ways either singularly or en masse. The truth is, there are some cutworms that are active in wetter soil conditions, and that makes scouting for them important in any conditions. There have been several reports of cutworms in different areas of the west which can be a significant plant stand killer
Dr. Lloyd Dosdall is an entomologist and professor at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. He is very familiar with the cutworm and admits that they are a very tricky bug that doesn’t always behave the way you would expect it to. I spoke to him recently about the cutworm and its unpredictability and what farmers can do to protect their crops and scout for the pests.
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