Cutworms

My garden beds have cutworms that can chew through the stem at or just below the soil level.  The don't eat the seedling but simply cut it off killing the plant -- pretty damn annoying.

Sometimes I can rescue a seedling from a premature death by recognizing that the plant is droopy compared to its neighbours.  A quick check immediately at the stem will reveal a 1" long, green-grey cutworm and damage to the stem.  Although I visit my garden every day, the cut worms can work really fast so I have to be vigilant in the first three weeks or so.

To prevent damage to newly planted seedlings I install homemade cutworm collars.  The collars are wrapped around the base of the plant to a depth of a couple of inches.  Although some don’t make a complete ring, this still provides a sufficient barrier to prevent the cutworms from getting access to the plant.

I typically make the collars out of used coffee or pop cups. I remove the bottoms and cut them down the side. My wife was able to score a few sleeves of Coke cups (a few years worth). I noticed that these are less sturdy than the coffee cups therefore cutting them a bit shorter would have been better.

I know people that swear by placing broken-up egg shells around the plants.  They tell me they have very few issues using this method.  But this would call for cracking a ton of eggs to be usefull in my garden.

After about three weeks I will remove the collars and toss them in the recycle bin.  One year I left them in thinking they will simply degrade.  All the cups did degrade except for a thin plastic films which tended to get stuck on my pitch fork for years to come.