Question Cutworms

El Colossus

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Hi all,

New to gardening in Australia and have recently been acquainted with the cutworm. What's the best way to stop these suckers from munching on my herbs at night?
 

ClissAT

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Hi there and welcome.

One natural method is to use potassium permanginate, otherwise known as Condy's Crystals. It is manic purple coloured and requires just a few individual crystals in a few litres of water.
Spray it on the soil around the plants or lawn if they are attacking the that.
Other than that, there are some commercial preparations that deal very effectively with these thieves!
 

El Colossus

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That's great, thanks a bunch. I was looking to avoid the chemicals in my garden. I've dug around and removed a couple of the suckers, which seems to have slowed the nightly munching, but I'll defiantly try the potassium permanganate.
 

Daniel.Mav

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I had a problem with cutworms a few years ago. Was horrible coming outside to check on the garden and finding young plants dying. I’ve heard that broken baked egg shells around the base of each plant are meant to work but I’ve never tried it.
 

ClissAT

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Cut worms live in the roots of the plant they are grazing on so egg shells have no effect.
They actually make a sort of capsule inside of which they pull the fresh leaves so they can munch all day.
They are very similar to army worms but don't have the green stripe along their sides.
 

Jason890

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How did the Condys go ??
 
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