Several species are involved, but most injury is caused by those species that feed just above or just beneath the soil surface.
Cutworms spend the winter as partly to fully grown larvae in the soil or under trash or clumps of grass. They start feeding in the spring, continue growth until early summer, pupate in the soil, and emerge as moths during the summer.
The females each lay about 1,000 eggs on the ground or on foliage in grassy or weedy fields. After the eggs hatch, the young larvae feed on roots and foliage of grasses and weeds, hibernate, and attack whatever vegetation is present the following spring.
