Cutworm Activity

We have had an interesting last two weeks with cutworm activity.  We began catching young cutworms in our pitfall traps the weekend before last.  We sprayed shortly after the positive ID.  We sprayed Tees, a ring around the greens and hot spots on south facing slopes in the rough.  The next day we had unbelievable control.  We had cutworms from all instar stages throughout the areas we sprayed from super tiny to decent in size.  We thought we were in the clear after our application last week.

This week we were still talking about the amazing control that we had.  We we

re fired up about the timing we had.  Then we started to notice some cutworms on the p

utting green.  We started to check all the greens.  Only a few greens were positve for cutworms.  I think our mistake was that i had our spray tech. spray a ring around the greens near the native and not next to the green.  The areas that are affected are near the edge of the greens.  These guys are super tiny but nonetheless are causing damage.

Yesterday the wind was too great for an application at night which I like to do since cutworms are nocturnal.  The spring here has wind each afternoon so we are going to have to spray this morning.  We are using a product with little odor so the members should not be bothered.  I am hoping a morning application will get good control later in the evening.

Yesterday we also added to our IPM program toolbox.  We added a black light trap.  This will help us monitor the peak flight of cutworm adults and Masked 

Chafer adults.  Both of these insects have been a problem in the past and we are still nursing thin areas from late damage from white grubs last year. 

 I am hoping this light trap will alert us early and we can provide the best control methods possible.

I will let you know how the application goes today.  We are getting our chemical delivered th

is morning for our morning application.