Armyworm management

[Stvrob]

Ive had some southern Armyworms that have just hatched and are going after my Brandywines. what would be the best way to knock them off? Will BT work well? There are not that many yet, but Im guessing that more will be hatching every day.

[coastal bend]

Well! I have heavy armyworm pressure ever year. I use spinosad , it will take them out and you will not have a problem. I used the old bt but could not get control. Spinsoad last longer and will do the job and keep out other worms to. The brand I use is Monterey garden spray. It is a newer type of bt.

[Redbaron]

Bt worked for me last year.

[Stvrob]

Thanks! i will look into this ASAP

[b54red]

If it is the same worms that hit mine the last two years I had to use Sevin to finally stop them. I tried bt for a couple of weeks and lost so much foliage it ruined some of my plants. I was putting bt out almost every day and it did kill some but not fast enough nor did it slow down the explosion of the population. I sprayed one time with Sevin and the next morning the ground was covered with dead worms and I had no more problems with them for the rest of the season. This year as soon as I see the first one I'm going to spray Sevin and not get into the mess I ran into the last two years.

[coastal bend]

The problem with Armyworms is that the moth lays egg masses under the leaves with over a 100 eggs. They all hatch at the same time. The plants will have several of these masses(depending on the pressure) on them. At first you won't notice the damage but as the worms get bigger they do a lot of damage in a short period of time. They can devastate a plant in one night when they are a larger size. b54red you might try the spinosad it is a lot more effective than the older bt's. Spinosad will last up to 10 days. While older bt maybe a day or two.Depending on if you have heavy dues or rain. Spinosad will go into the leaf and will not wash off. It is a good product.