Hate is such a strong word.  But too strong?  Perhaps.

Still, what I feel when I see the sort of “I’m hungry, so to hell with you” behavior that a couple of cutworms just visited upon my miniature iris is something that at the very least, lives in the same neighborhood as hate.  Maybe just down the block, in the neighborhood of loathing.  I get all tied in knots and want to squeeze them between my thumb and index finger until I take on a bit  of their essence, which I affectionately refer to as ‘green thumb’ and force them to take on the essence of, wait for it . . . ‘squash’.

Is that so wrong?

I went outside a couple of mornings ago to find all but two of my cheerful little iris ravaged (see above) by those ravenous  moth larvae known as cutworms.  Dropping immediately to my knees, muttering harsh, wounded-sounding vagaries to the hiding worms and choked-up apologies to my broken friends, I scoured the area around each decimated plant for a good ten minutes.  But in all that careful searching, I could only find one of them.  These iris are growing up through a bed of Leptinella squallida, so I know the other little monsters are still hiding somewhere in that ‘Brass Buttons’ jungle, planning their next nighttime attack.  And the next massacre, inevitably will be my tulips, which are planted randomly within that same bed, and just now poking their heads above ground. 

Somehow, between now and bloom time I need to ‘repurpose’ every one of those monstrous little pillagers, but without having to go nuclear.  (You know, chemical).  I’d love to wipe them all out in one clean sweep, but know that I’d probably take a slew of beneficial bugs out with them if I did, and really, I’ve worked so hard to make my garden bird and bug friendly, striving toward some natural sense of balance.  It has been working on so many fronts, too.  So I guess I’ll just try to pick the little buggers off one at a time and stick with my higher purpose ‘plan’.

Some of you may remember one of my ‘best use’ methods of ‘repurposing’ cutworms, as discussed in a post from last Spring.   Time to polish up ‘The Rock’ and start feeding more of them to the birds.  Better they make a meal than a stain.  Or a tulip graveyard.

First though, I need to figure out a more efficient way to catch these marauders before they kill again.  So if any of you have perfected any form of eco-friendly Cutworm Capture, especially in deep, furry, jungle-like foliage, I’m all ears and would be most assuredly grateful.

Share with the class whatever you know . . . Please!  Help a fella’ and his poor sitting-duck tulips out, I’m beggin’ ya’!