An Indigenous-led farm and land-based training program located in Kitwanga is slowly recovering after an infestation destroyed nearly all of their plants.
Back in May, Tea Creek Farm had a community plant-in during which volunteers planted thousands of baby plants in the farm's lower big field. They had spent weeks seeding and getting started.
Over half the crop was killed just three days later, and within a week, 90 per cent of the plants were dead.
Farm co-owner Jacob Beaton said it took them a little while to absolutely confirm the cause, as there were a number of theories floating around. Some thought it was birds due to bird droppings on the plants, others thought it was deer, but both did not make any sense to Beaton, whose first theory was insects.
"It was hard to find any evidence, direct evidence of insects, like finding culprits on the plant," he said.
After heavy inspection, insects were found to be the culprit, as the whole area had a major cutworm problem.
"I started talking with other gardeners, some other farmers, and for our farm here, this is a first for us," Beaton said. "We've never had cutworm before, and I suspect it has something to do with this warm winter we had this year not killing off the larvae."
Beaton and the farm had to start over. Work crews, staff and volunteers came back to poke more seeds and put more baby plants into the ground, trying to fill the field with as many vegetables as possible. Their original crop plan went out the window, as they did not have additional seeds for certain plants, but the farm did have a surplus of potatoes that have now been planted.
Beaton explained the reason he and the farm did not see the cutworms at first was because the worms stay in the soil during the day and then come out at night to eat the plants.
"It looked like the hungry, hungry caterpillar had gone to town and had a big party and all you can eat buffet," he recalled.
To eradicate the cutworms, Beaton and the farm simply used water. They saturated the entire field with water for a couple of days with drip irrigation tape to bring the worms and caterpillars to the surface. Beaton had also noticed robins hanging around, so he thought if he could force the worms out with excess water then the robins would eat them.
It worked and it was a big success, according to Beaton.
"We came up after two days of watering and there were tons of robins," he said. "Our crew observed one flying by with about three or four brown cutworms in its beak."
Beaton and the farm are currently looking at different ways to cover their fields at night to stop the adult moths from landing and laying the eggs that lead to the infestation. He admits it is challenging since the farm is small-scale and they do not have the hands or machinery to cover the entire acre and a half of land.
"I hope others maybe learned a little bit about cutworms and insect infestations and how frustrating it can be to farm sometimes," Beaton said. "I know a lot of farmers are going to feel and empathize with me because they've all been through something like this before, maybe many times."
