The large larvae that one finds cutting cotton seedlings at this time of the season did not reach that size from feeding on cotton. Some species of cutworms overwinter as partly grown larvae. Others develop from eggs deposited early in the spring on weedy hosts. In either case, the cutworms found feeding on cotton usually began their development on some alternate host and then moved to cotton when that host was destroyed before planting. However, there are several generations per year, and cutworm moths do occasionally lay eggs on seedling cotton plants.
Cutworms are nocturnal and spend the day resting in shallow burrows in the soil near a host plant.
Some species may pull cut plants or parts of plants into the burrow with them. As seedlings grow some species of cutworms, particularly variegated cutworms and granulate cutworms, may climb up the plants and feed on foliage, cutting branches and leaf petioles, but this type of damage is rarely common enough to be of concern. Treatment is recommended when cutworms threaten to reduce plant stand below an acceptable level in an area of the field that is large enough to justify treatment. Cutworm infestations rarely are distributed uniformly across a field and spot treatment may be all that is necessary. The difficulty comes in scouting the field thoroughly enough to identify where treatable infestations exist.