Cutworm

the caterpillar of certain nocturnal or owlet moths. The eggs are laid in midsummer. During the autumn vegetation is so plentiful and the caterpillars so small that they attract no notice; but they stay in the ground over winter and commit frightful ravages in the spring. The common cutworm crawls about chiefly at night in search of a tender meal, and cuts off a young plant at the very surface of the ground. During the daytime they may be found coiled up comfortably in the ground near by. When night arrives the cutworm may feed again on the stub of the same plant, or it may pull the top into the ground for additional meals; but the chances are that it will cut off a plant or two each night until the stems are too old and tough for that kind of work. Entire fields of beans, peas, onions, and corn, or melon vines, may be swept away in a few nights. For a few garden vegetables it is quite possible to insert old cans around choice plants, and to search the cutworms out each morning. The earlier, the more easily they are located. Gardeners say that holes a few inches deep, made with the handle of a hoe, make good traps. In hunting for a place to hide at daylight the worm falls in, and may be taken in the morning hours before he climbs up the steep sides and gets out again. Gardens dressed heavily with barnyard manure are especially subject to cutworms.