Cut worms on my hop plants!!! (pics)

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MVKTR2

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Did my 2nd day of maintainance on the hop plants yesterday stripping leaves from lower 30" or so and cutting away 'extra' runners.

I also found these little black bass-turds munching on my foliage! Not a ton of them but cut worms don't need a great number to do real damage.

Suggestions for treatment options for the little buggers below?

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On the bright side my plants are looking great! (other than a few cut up leaves that is!)
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Nugget.

Schlante,
Phillip
 
looks more like a ladybug larvae(could be wrong though). those are 'good' bugs.
 
They do kind of look like ladybug larvae. Hard to tell for sure from the pics though.

Cutworms don't have the spikes, as far as I know.
 
This is a ladybug larvae, it's absolutely not these things. Besides do they even eat leaves. I'll give you they look similar though, but my pests are worms... leaf eating worms!!!
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Ladybug Larvae above

Think I'll hit em with sevin toward the end of the week if they are still around after being picked off and squashed all week. Any other ideas?

Schlante,
Phillip
 
I wouldnt worry too much if there are only a couple of them but then again I dont cut off the lower 30" of my leaves either. This seems like a waste of good leaves to me. Typically a few eaten leaves arent going to harm the plant IMO but with 30" of them already gone maybe it will.

If the worms start to multiply, that's a different situation...

If you want to get rid of them I would try killing them or cutting the leaves off and moving them somewhere else before I go the sevin route.
 
i have those caterpillars too and from what i found out there are Question Mark caterpillars. whose diet includes hops and other trees
 
Just found about 8 of them on a leaf with many more unhatched eggs. MVKTR did you use Sevin to get rid of them or did the problem cure itself?

Chemicals aren't my first choice but I don't plan on letting this go too long before pulling the trigger.
 
Yeah those are not cutworms. You would most likely find cutworms near the base of the plant where they eat. They will mow down your crop at the base like it has been cut hence the name. The little guys are in fact butterfly larvae of either the question mark butterfly or the hoary comma butterfly depending on where your at. You should pick one of your plants to designate as a host plant for the little critters and document their life cycle and the miracle of metamorphasis. Butterflies are beautiful creatures you should not kill them.
 
T-Bag: You are awesome. Great advice! Share the veggies with the butterflies! The only bugs I will eradicate are overly large colonies of aphids or fruit tree worms (green ones). I like to see how the other ones operate - its fun!
 
No love here. The green worms are non-existant this year but have been replaced with worms similar to the OP. I squished them all by hand and will probably have to for the next couple weeks. Then it's time for cone setting and the watch for aphids. Luckily I have a tree that seems to breed ladybugs.
 
no love here either, i caught 6 of them and am watchin them grow but not on my hops! those critters can eat a good sized leaf in a couple hrs, it wouldn't take them long to destroy the plant.
 
Went back tonight and only found two worms on nine plants. Hopefully they're in check. It's wierd that I've never seen this pest before over the years. They could definately take a leaf off in a short amount of time.
 
T-Bag and JJones, are you guys growing your own hops? I only ask because, hops not butterflies are what will be making my beer taste good.
 
For any kind of damaging worms in the garden I use what's called BT (bascillicus thurengenis sp?). It's a bacteria that destoys the digestive system of worms, killing them from the inside out, and it's 100% percent safe for people and pets and considered organic. The bacteria cannot survive in our digestive tract. I use it for all my cabbage family crops and hops. 1 application a week, and I never have a problem. Hope this helps. Dave
 
im thinking i might try this


The only thing I wonder about and I may too paranoid is doing anything that would effect the flavour of the hops. ...again, I don't know if I'm overthinking it.

Not that chili pepper cascades wouldn't be good or anything.
 
I have these too. They're definitely a pain in my ass. I just don't know why they're not eating or even on the other vegitation around my patio. All the woods behind my house and they're on my hops.
 
For any kind of damaging worms in the garden I use what's called BT (bascillicus thurengenis sp?). It's a bacteria that destoys the digestive system of worms, killing them from the inside out, and it's 100% percent safe for people and pets and considered organic. The bacteria cannot survive in our digestive tract. I use it for all my cabbage family crops and hops. 1 application a week, and I never have a problem. Hope this helps. Dave

Yeah, that stuff is awesome. I use it to control those green caterpillars on my cole vegetables that come from the white butterflies/moths.
 
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