Cutworms & Melons

Identification

• Cutworms measure approximately 1 1/2 inches in length and have mottled skin that's typically either gray or brown in hue. You can typically find them by raking the soil surface around your melon plants where the cutworms hide from the heat of the day. Once exposed, the cutworms generally curl to form a C shape.

Life Cycle

• An adult moth will lay up to 1,500 eggs at the end of the summer in the dirt and in any melon plant debris on the soil surface. The following spring, the eggs hatch and the larvae appear. During the spring, the larvae feed on the melon plants and get bigger and bigger before turning into pupae and emerging as adult moths in the early summer.

Damage

• Cutworms typically attack young melon vines and transplants, although damage to mature melon vines is not uncommon. The pests will feed on melon plants at night, cutting off the melon vine at the base of the plant where the stem meets the roots. Sometimes, the cut in the stem isn't completely severed and the vine simply starts wilting. Cutworms eat melon plants quickly, and it's not uncommon for an entire row or patch of melon plants to be damaged all at once.

Prevention

• Remove all weeds and grasses from your melon patch a minimum of two weeks before planting your melons, and keep your garden weed-free all year. Weeds are the most common hosts of these pests, and as they hatch the larvae typically transfer themselves from weeds to the melon plants. Additionally, at the end of every growing season, remove and destroy any plant debris in your garden, as this debris may be hosting cutworm eggs.

Control

• Unlike some melon pests, cutworm problems are generally concentrated on specific parts of your melon garden, and spot treatment should suffice. Use any carbaryl-based bait labeled for use in vegetable gardens, and look for a labeled concentration of at least 5 percent carbaryl. Wearing rubber gloves, scatter the bait between your rows of melons. The bait will attract the cutworms and the carbaryl will kill them.