Worm Problems in Trousdale County-Flint Adam

If you are a farmer or have a home garden, you're used to dealing with plant-pests.

But in Trousdale County, some folks are in a major battle with the bugs.

Cut Worms are known for chewing through crops, flowers and backyard veggies.

Usually they're nothing more than a nuisance, easily solved with bug killer.

In the Bethpage community near Hartsville, a few neighbors are wrangling with some rather hardy worms.

Glance at the Blair property along Templow Road, and you'll admire a
pretty scene of green grass, and the beginnings of a garden behind the house.

However, not much is growing.

In fact, you'll only find a few sprouts along the onion row.

The rest are nubs.

James Blair says, "When the onions was so short, I thought they died out. So, i dug one up and looked at it. When i did, there's a worm right beside of it."

James Blair found a cut worm.

Dig around any onion numb, and you'll likely find one.

The problem, though, is not the lone worm, but his many buddies.

Lisa Blair says, "Thousands - thousands of worms. I've never seen anything like this."

They ingest the garden, the lawn and you'll find them all around the neighborhood homes.

At the Blair's house, you'll find clumps of them wriggling en mass.

Folks are trying a lot of ways to get rid of the worms.

They've used bug repellent, bleach and gasoline - but despite it all, the worms just keep coming back.

James Blair says, "It seems like every few days, it just keeps getting worse and we find more and more."

UT extension agent Jason Evitts says he's not aware of a cut worm epidemic in Trousdale County, but he'll keep an eye on the outbreak along Templow Road.

He says if bug repellents don't help out, time surely will.

Cut worms take on another form, as moths, in about another month.

Jason Evitts says, "You're probably going to see some cut worms maybe until the middle or the latter part of may... maybe the first of June."

A day that won't come soon enough for these folks, especially those with green thumbs, along Templow Road.

Evitts says he'll begin posting notices in local papers that cut worms are in the county and could become problematic.

He says farmers and gardeners should consider treating their land with bug
repellent before planing.Worm Problems in Trousdale County-Flint Adam