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Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!seismo!harpo!floyd!vax135!ariel!houti!hogpc!houxm!ihnp4!zehntel!zinfandel!berry
From: berry@zinfandel.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.garden
Subject: Re: Snails (slugs) - (nf)
Message-ID: <1057@zehntel.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 10-Jun-83 01:17:54 EDT
Article-I.D.: zehntel.1057
Posted: Fri Jun 10 01:17:54 1983
Date-Received: Sun, 12-Jun-83 04:46:48 EDT
Lines: 20

#R:rocksvax:-45500:zinfandel:18500004:000:936
zinfandel!berry    Jun  9 10:02:00 1983

It sounds like you have an infestation of cutworms.  They eat through
the stem of young succulent tender plants, and then snails and slugs get the
rest of the plant.  cutworms tend to eat one stem, then burrow down and 
sleep during the day.  Scratch around in the dirt near the newly
toppled plant, find the little begger and snuff him. Keep it up a few
days and they'll go away.

An alternative, drastic method to eradicate cutworms is to spray a
broad spectrum herbicide (like Roundup - monacetyl glyphosate.  It
degrades safely in a week or two.) and till the soil when everything
dies.  A period of a couple of weeks with no plants will starve all the
cutworms.  We did this to our back yard (for other reasons; the previous
tenant let it turn into a jungle.) and so far have had exactly 2 cutworms.
When they were killed our problem disappeared.

Berry Kercheval		Zehntel Inc.	(decvax!sytek!zehntel!zinfandel!berry)
(415)932-6900