Cutworms are nocturnal and spend the day hiding under debris or in the soil. Scouting for cutworms is often more successful in the evening when they come out to feed.Individual cutworms tend to feed within the seed row, leaving a gap when the affected plants are clipped off or die. Look for areas with missing plants and wilted, notched, gouged or shot-holed plant tissue.Monitor germinating crop for expanding thinned or bare areas.Crops should be scouted regularly (weekly) in early spring to June.There are one or two larval generations per year before populations die off in the fall.Adults are 20 mm long body with long, narrow, usually dark forewings which are pale near the tips with three black dashes on each forewing.

The mature larvae are up to 46 mm long, smooth and ranges from purplish to brown in colour.

Larvae emerge from the pupae in the spring and feed on new plants.

Cutworms overwinter in the soil as pupae.

each spring females lay eggs on weed and grass hosts in fields or margins.

Cutworms are an early-season insect pest.

Lentil crops can often recover from cutworm damage given favourable growing conditions but maturity may be delayed.The feeding behaviour will vary depending on species, but most feed at night.Foliar feeding cutworms (dingy and army cutworms) feed above-ground, consuming the plant foliage.Below-ground feeding cutworms (pale western and red-backed cutworms) cut plants off at or near the soil surface.Cutworms can cause damage to newly emerged lentil seedlings, and at times may require insecticide application.

One larva can kill many plants until it pupates in the soil. Most sever young plants from roots near the soil line as they feed at the base of the leaves others feed on the roots and underground stems of cut plants. The first generation of cutworm larvae is the most damaging.Most cutworm damage occurs in late-May and early-June, usually at night, as larvae cut off seedlings just below the soil surface.Cutworms are the larvae of several different types of moths.Cutworm, Photo Credit: Canola Council of Canada

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