How to keep cutworms or whatever the caterpillar is off my geraniums?
Every year I change the soil in my window boxes thinking this will give me a fresh start and (just in case) get rid of the budworm caterpillars from last year that may have laid eggs or whatever they do to propegate. My Geraniums thrive, they are gorgeous. THEN THE CRITTERS COME! They eat the flowers, buds, every beautiful piece of my gorgeous plants. All three large window boxes are a mess. I stopped the aphids when I stopped planting petunias, but I can't stop the green, hard to find caterpillars unless I stop planting my Geraniums. HELP! I've used BT and still they ate away. This has been going on for about 5 years now.
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I promise nothing,but I use this for everything, as my first line of defense, then go bigger. A teaspoon of dawn dish soap in a spray bottle of water. Spray tops and under leaves, really well. Do it about every 3 days. You should notice the difference within 7-10 days. You might want to continue once a week if you think they are hatching in your planter.
Kitty's advice is very helpful. I'd only further suggest adding agricultural grade Diatomaceous Earth on the top layer of dirt in your planters. As caterpillers and cutworms crawl over it, they slice themselves open and die.
Tomato growers sometimes wrap the base of the stems with newspaper strips to a height of 3-4" to deter tomato hornworms.
Lightly crumpled amuminum foil pinned into the dirt around plants helps deter aphids.
I put coffee grounds on mine all winter but the Dawn sounds great