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Questions and Answers:Q. I am about to give up on fall vegetable gardening because there is a little green worm that is eating everything. What is it and how do I get rid of it? A. The worm you describe is the cabbage looper. It gets the name from the way the worm waves its head around or “loops” when disturbed. It is a small green worm with a really big appetite. There are four to five generations a year and it survives almost specifically on vegetables. Strangely, there are very few host plants that grow in the wild for these little devils to over winter on that eat five times their body weight in greens every day. As the common name implies, it feeds readily on crucifers, and has been reported damaging broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, Chinese cabbage, collards, kale, mustard, radish, rutabaga, turnip, and watercress. Other vegetable crops injured include beet, cantaloupe, celery, cucumber, lima bean, lettuce, parsnip, pea, pepper, potato, snap bean, spinach, squash, sweet potato, tomato, and watermelon. Sometimes they will destroy flower crops such as chrysanthemum, hollyhock, snapdragon, and sweet pea, and field crops such as cotton and tobacco. The important thing to remember for control is that you cannot use a pesticide such as pyrethrum or Sevin that will kill bees. You should use a natural pesticide such as Bt or Spinosad. You must spray under the leaves because when the worms are still too small to see, they eat on the undersides of the leaves. Then, when they get big enough to do real damage, they leave large ragged holes and will even attack the flowers of many vegetables soon after they are pollinated. This is problematic because many flowers such as squash blossoms close after pollination and that gives the worm protection from any spray. Both Bt and Spinosad have to be consumed by the worm to be effective. If you see a closed squash blossom that doesn't look right and has little black specks of worm excrement around it, you can be sure a looper is already inside having dinner. Open the blossom carefully and remove the worm. Drop it in a jar of warm soapy water or smash the heck out of it between your fingers, which is much more satisfying. The cabbage looper also protects itself by folding a section of a tattered leaf over itself and sticking it together with a fine web. You can easily spot them at this stage and remove the worm. For effective control, you will need to do a combination of the two, which is spray in the evening, and pick off any worms that survive the spray in the morning when they are moving around slowly. When you spray you can combine compost tea or seaweed extract with your solution to help plants recover. According to my observation, they seem to stay off red cabbage, but I have no scientific evidence to prove they won’t show up there tomorrow. Q. I’m having trouble getting lettuce seed started. I thought I was supposed to plant it in the middle of September? A. The evenings are perfect for lettuce production this year but the daytime temperatures and intense sunlight are hurting production. I’m having the best luck with Buttercrunch this year while the other standards such as black-seeded Simpson are suffering. If you direct seed, try a shadier spot, maybe one under some trees that will lose their leaves as the weather cools. Because tiny lettuce plants can be tasty treats for garden pests of all sizes, try starting seeds separately in small pots, and letting them get bigger.
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