Gardening Answers Knowledgebase

I strongly suspect you have Variegated (or Climbing) Cutworms. I have these nasty bugs too and can give you a long list of plants they eat. Foxgloves are their favorite. Here are some management solutions in order of most work, least toxic to less work, but more toxic:

1) hand-pick after dark (with a flashlight) starting in January and continuing through May.
2) spray Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) (found in Caterpillar Killer). It must be reapplied after rain. Be careful where you spray it because it will also kill butterfly caterpillars.
3) general pesticides will kill cutworms and many other critters that come along, including bees and may harm birds.

Here are some links to more information:
U.C. Davis Integrated Pest Management
North Carolina Cooperative Extension

Season All Season
Date 2008-01-17
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I have grown artichokes for the last 5 years, so I am going to answer from personal experience.
Do not cut the plants back because they will be sending up their flowers in the next few weeks (depending on the weather, it could be as late as June). Cutting it back now will just delay any flowers for at least 6-8 months, if not kill them outright. While I too have had numerous slugs, earwigs and cutworms, I find that their damage is minimal, and does not hurt the flower show. And for eating I just wash them carefully and then turn a blind eye when I find a few earwigs in the pot after cooking!
Sprinkling some Sluggo (or comparable less toxic slug bait) into the leaf joints will help too.

Season Spring
Date 2006-11-02
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I wonder if this might be the work of cutworms. You can take a close look just under the soil surface, along the stems, and inside curled or folded leaves during the day, or take a flashlight at night, which is when they feed, and see if that may be why your strawberries are being cut away from the plant. If you find them, cut them with garden pruners.

Washington State University's pest and disease site does list the cutworm as a known pest of strawberries. Excerpt:

"Cutworms and armyworms are the larvae of noctuid moths. These common moths are medium-sized with fairly dull coloration. The greenish, grayish, or tan caterpillars are hairless, nocturnal, and generally spotted, striped, or otherwise marked. They may be 1/4" to 1" in length and tend to curl up when disturbed. They may climb into the plant and feed on foliage, buds, flowers, or fruit. Armyworm behavior is similar to that of cutworms, but armyworms feed in large groups instead of individually. They tend to be voracious feeders. The caterpillars typically spend the day just beneath the soil surface or under debris near the host. Weeds are a primary food source for both cutworms and armyworms."

I looked at Pests of the Garden and Small Farm by Mary Louise Flint (University of California, 1990), but could not find any strawberry disease resembling what you have observed in your garden, which leads me to believe it is a pest problem. Here is a link to U.C. Davis's Integrated Pest Management page on strawberries.

Season All Season
Date 2007-06-28
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