Peridroma Saucia is not very saucy at all. In fact, these garden vampires will gnaw, chew and destroy their way through any kind of green thing with leaves that may potentially be food for you. You must remove this wee monster before it will become a moth that will lay eggs and start the process again.
When I found this thing deep into the soil of a planter bed I was preparing for sunflowers and peppers, I thought of this community, and had The Big Guy take a couple pictures for me.
I am so glad I did!
I put it in a jar with some soil, just in case it wasn't a monster, and hid it behind the strawberry patch. I found a couple of its friends too, and put them in the same jar for an overnight stay before I flung them to the happy band of robins bouncing around my labyrinth earlier today once I'd completed my research.
It's about 9:30PM here in the Pacific Northwest, and nearly dark. We have very long days here. Not as long as the motherland: Denmark (where the Big Guy is from and my ancestors too) at this time of year, but never the less, we're going out in a bit to find more of these creatures. Armed with a flashlight and a bucket of soapy water, we're going to go vampire, erm, "cutworm" hunting and save our garden veggies.
These creatures come out at night and don't stop feeding on your precious seedlings until everything is gone! Later in the summer they will eventually creep to the top of anything left and make it a buffet.
I researched ways to discourage them, including putting "collars" around the seedlings by using cardboard rings and diatomaceous earth (D.E.), but that can harm helpful insects like bees! I don't want to risk it.
Finally, even though birds will sometimes think my young seedlings are theirs to eat, those birds seem to know where to dig up cutworms, so don't get too cranky when you see the birds hopping around your garden. Last, but not least, I never thought I'd find a reason to appreciate wasps, but those guys will make a snack of this ugly caterpillar if they find one during the day. Save a wasp, kill a cutworm!
Any images and graphics (unless noted) are mine.
They are a curse! I generally try and get my seedlings in when the weather is cool, before these guys get active with their life cycle. It snows here only every 20 or 30 years but we do sometimes get a late frost so it's a chance I have to take: cutworms or cold? Unfortunately the birds have to take their chances against the cats in my garden
When I see damage, I dig around in the soil at the base of the affected plants, the culprit is usually nearby
I tried that (digging around) and I don't think I dug enough. I was worried about tender root growth. We have to keep a hefty gate around our garden to keep the deer out, but how I wish we could have some "barn" or outdoor cats to protect us from the rodents. Sadly, there are far too many eagles along the coast here, and our neighbors haven't recovered from the loss of their sweet kitty who was plucked from the yard in plain view. They've actually found collars of missing pets in the eagle nests.
I do see the occasional crow nab a rat from time to time.
It's always us against "them".
The "them" are the critters that remind us that what is ours, is theirs too!