My tomato plants are big & pretty & have lots of tomatos so I'm a happy fella! Yeaterday I go out after work & find big green caterpillars eating away at them. I'm not so happy. I put on some gloves & picked off the ones I could find. Any other solutions that don't involve major chemical warfare? Thanks.
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For the big tomato hornworms most of us just pick them off and sqish them, but if you are unlucky enough to get something like Beet armyworms or fruit borrers you may want to try spraying with BT. It is a natural bacterial strain that the caterpillars ingest, and then the bacteria activate and kill the caterpillar.
The beet army worm moth lays around a hundred eggs at a time, and the little worms spread out over the entire plant and any touching it. By the time they are big enough to notice you are in real trouble.
The beet army worm moth lays around a hundred eggs at a time, and the little worms spread out over the entire plant and any touching it. By the time they are big enough to notice you are in real trouble.
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elevenplants
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- Location: alabama
Last year I found a bunch of little little black caterpillars on one plant in a row growing on a raised trellis fence, so the plant was easy to search. I squashed about 50. A few days later I notice larger holes in the leaves and I found a couple dozen more. A few days later more holes and bigger worms. I thought I had them all when I didn't notice any more serious leaf damage, and then I went to pick fruit. When the few remaining ones got to be full sized (1.5") they ate into the fruits at the top near the stem. They were brown bark colored and would sit on the rust brown fence and wooden stake, camouflaged. I looked them up on the internet and found out that they were relatively new to Ohio, but more common in the south, and attacked a number of vegetables. color can vary from green to black. Mine had two light stipes on them when they were still small.
Luckily only that one plant, out of 60, got hit.
As for the green hornworms...
I usually have one or two extra plants growing in an out of the way place to fill the deer up before they get to the garden etc., and when I find the big hornworms with wasp coccoons on them I move them to the sacrificial plant so that the wasps have a chance to hatch and kill more worms.
Luckily only that one plant, out of 60, got hit.
As for the green hornworms...
I usually have one or two extra plants growing in an out of the way place to fill the deer up before they get to the garden etc., and when I find the big hornworms with wasp coccoons on them I move them to the sacrificial plant so that the wasps have a chance to hatch and kill more worms.
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The Helpful Gardener
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TZ, we should mention the specific strain of BT so people aren't trying mosquito dunks and wondering why it's not working...
BTI or Bacillus thuringensis israelensis is effective on fly larvae, like fungus gnats or moquitoes. BTK or B.t. kurstaki is good for catepillars that turn into moths or catepillars, and BTSD, or B.t. san diego, is good for the ones that become beetles...you want kurstaki for this lot...
HG
BTI or Bacillus thuringensis israelensis is effective on fly larvae, like fungus gnats or moquitoes. BTK or B.t. kurstaki is good for catepillars that turn into moths or catepillars, and BTSD, or B.t. san diego, is good for the ones that become beetles...you want kurstaki for this lot...
HG