My sunflowers look terrible and there's worms in them!

I've never grown a plant without it dying quickly and tragically. This year we tried sunflowers for the first time. They started off well, not expecting much since the seeds were old to begin with. My mom tilled up the ground next to the garage and we tossed in a bunch of seed. They grew well and fast and we ended up staking them and then tieing them to protect them from the wind.

The last couple of weeks they started to droop and today we cut off the heads to discover worms and black fuzzy stuff on and in them.

I'm pretty sure these are armyworms, but I don't know how we could have avoided them much better. We have several bird feeders around the other side of the garage (about 100 feet away) and mom put some sevin(sp?) powder on them when they were smaller.

The black fuzzy stuff - I have no idea. Can we still use the seeds and work around the worms and fuzz? Are the seeds still good (not all have holes in them)?

What should we do to preserve some of these seeds to try again next May?

Edit: I should add that we are in Maryland halfway between Baltimore City and Delaware

This message was edited Sep 7, 2015 8:58 PM

Caterpillars can be killed by Sevin (yes, that is the spelling). But it needs to be reapplied a few times to target when the caterpillars hatch.
Caterpillars can also be killed by Bacillus thuringiensis. Dipel is one trade name.

If you intend to feed them to the birds, then I would just place the flowers where the birds will find them. The birds will eat the caterpillars, too.

If they are sunflowers for you to eat, then sort through them really well to find the best. Save the best to reseed next year. The 'almost as good' are the ones to eat. The rest can be fed to the birds.

I agree with Diana, but I'm mystified as to why the birds have not been feeding on the sunflowers already.
The worm like things you see are caterpillars BUT you need to try find out from which type of butterfly / moth they will turn into, The horrid black stuff could be webbing the Caterpillars spin or even the moth / butterfly to protect the there eggs as they know the birds will feed on them.

I would hang a bird feeder amony the Sunflowers, yes they will eat some of the seeds, BUT with luck, they will also strip the flowers and foliage of those bugs and Catpillars.

I never use seeds that have been damaged either by disease or insects as there is a chance these problems can be within the seeds, therefore passing it onto the next years seedlings.
If I were you, I would buy fresh new seeds for planting next year then you will know there was nothing wrong with the actual seeds, I say this because you mentioned the seeds you used were old and it gives a clue they may not have been the healthiest seeds to begin with.
Lots of plants can take an invasion from insect,diseases or other attacks when they are strong, healthy to start with but usually succumb lots of problems when they dont have the strength to recover with our help.
Next year set a few bird feeder among large quantities of these plants, when you find even a couple of these worms???? OR the black webbing, you need to take action then, and Never wait till the plants are covered with the disease or webs,
It's hard trying to find out any problems BUT if stuck for answers come onto the Dave's site before you see this amount of damage, there's always other who can help you out quickly and you will be able to fix the problem.
For NOW, you could put thin gloves on and remove the black web or mould or whatever it is, this way you will be able to assess just how tough this substance is and why maybe the birds cant break through it to reach the grubs etc.

Hope you can get to the root of the problem,

Kindest Regards.
WeeNel.

I just saw this on the ID insects ans spider forum and wondered if this might be the problem. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracantha_cultaris. Just a possibility.

I think you have possibly hit it right 1lisac, I was thinking Spider mites BUT they dont normally show webs as dark as the ones in the picture, BUT fruit flies are a good bet too.
Hope it gets solved with some treatment be it natural treatment of not,

There is nothing more disheartening for new gardeners than to do all the work, give all the care and attention only to find nature comes along and bites you on the backside, squashing the confidence.

I hope this wont put off Heidi and Husband, I hate when this happens BUT nature is always trying to tell us who's really in charge, we just learn what to look out for next attempt and be watchfull well in advance.

Kind regards.
WeeNel.

I think you have possibly hit it right 1lisac, I was thinking Spider mites BUT they dont normally show webs as dark as the ones in the picture, BUT fruit flies are a good bet too.
Hope it gets solved with some treatment be it natural treatment of not,

There is nothing more disheartening for new gardeners than to do all the work, give all the care and attention only to find nature comes along and bites you on the backside, squashing the confidence.

I hope this wont put off Heidi and Husband, I hate when this happens BUT nature is always trying to tell us who's really in charge, we just learn what to look out for next attempt and be watchfull well in advance.

Kind regards.
WeeNel.