On Mon, 21 Apr 2003 15:48:16 GMT, Frau Himmel
wrote:

My gardener-wife has just completed the
Spring garden, 20' X 30'. She has included
Many tomato plants (for frying green!) and
Japanese egg plants. They stand nearly a
foot high. For two nights in succession,
Something has cut two tomatos and three
egg plants off @ 2.5 inches off the ground.
It's a clean cut, almost surgical. Doesn't
seem anything was eaten, just severed.
Now she has put Sevin and diazanon
around the remaining plants. We have
lots of squirrels and a few racoons, but
I don't think they're that neat!.

1. What is doing this? and
2. How would you prevent it continuing?

TKS,
Scott


Could be cutworms. There are several species that attack different
parts of a plant and in different ways. Here is one type:

Quote

Damage

In field crops and several vegetables such as carrots, cutworm damage
typically results in plants being cut off at ground level resulting in
skips or circular bare patches within a field. Thresholds in Manitoba
are 3-4 larvae per square metre (or yard). In tomatoes, damage also
occurs during late July and August where light feeding or deep holes
in the fruit may result in increased disease infection.

End quote.

From
http://www.agsolutions.ca/pub/east/r...en.cgi/cutworm

Some types of cutworms encircle the plant stem and then "cut" it.
They can be stopped by placing some object, about 3 inches tall,
completely around the stem a little above and below ground level.

A search on "cutworm" will bring up several hits on the various types
of cutworms and the methods of dealing with them.