The leaf chewing and holes in leaves was not from a cutworm. It was probably from a wooly bear caterpillar. This leaf stem cutting is something new and the only critter I know of that does this is a cutworm. Bt will kill cutworms, IF, they ingest enough of it. Sluggo plus is different. It is a bait and the bait is infused with spinosad. The cutworm will eat more of it and ingest more of the poison. It seems as though your zuc plant is a magnet for all sorts of nefarious creatures. To be sure spray both spinosad and Bt once per week. You can mix the two and only spray once. The main thing now is that mildew problem. You have to address this now or pretty soon the caterpillars or whoever will not have anything to damage.
If you planted squash 10 days ago those leaves you saw were cotyledons and could have been eaten by just about anything from pillbugs to rabbits. The peppers however are another story. Are there holes in the leaves or just bites taken out? Are the stems eaten too or just leaves? If the stems are eaten too it is probably a 4 legged culprit. If it is just the leaves and big hunks are eaten or the entire leaf gone it is probably a caterpillar. If small bites are taken from the edge of the leaf or the epidermis is damaged it is a biting chewing insect. Spray spinosad every 4 or 5 days without fail and it will kill any caterpillar or insect. And don't stop the spray regimine. It appears that you live in insect heaven
Some variety of caterpillar. If your plants are in full all day sun spray Bt every day. Or you can use spinosad every 4 or 5 days. And don't forget to spray. I am pretty sure it is caterpillars but it's possible it isn't. What I would do is mix both spinosad and Bt at the 2 oz per gallon of water instructions. Or a half ounce of each per quart. Remember that sunlight degrades both. Bt will last about a day on a plant and spinosad lasts about 2-4 days in all day sunlight. Spray late late afternoons or at dark.
Thank you. I haven’t been spraying my plants with anything because I never found evidence of a culprit. The last time I sprayed was when I had the zucchini, but that was long ago.
Wow! I never knew those existed. They quickly cut leaves and fly away. That would explain why I can never find the culprit.
Start spraying. You will never know the culprit unless you can eliminate potential misdoers. If the spinosad and Bt have no effect then you know it isn't caterpillars or insects. That leaves snails and slugs and you have Sluggo Plus for that too. If the Sluggo and Bt and spinosad do not cure the problem then the culprit has 4 legs or 2 wings. There isn't anything else. Many years ago I had a similar problem. This was years before spinosad, Bt and Sluggo. It ended up being field mice. I went through every insecticide known to mankind to no avail and the way I found out what it was, was when I saw some mouse droppings and out came the mouse traps. And viola, after about 6 or 8 mice the damage stopped.
