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Susy
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Joined: Fri Jul 23, 2010 1:13 pm
Location: Winnipeg MB

Save my tomatoes!

Something's eating them. (Well, the leaves actually.) And it seems, the plants next to them! It's a tiny green worm, looks like a little inch worm. No where near the size of those hornworms. They're eating little holes in my leaves, eventually devouring entire leaves.

here's a pic. Hopefully someone can help.

Is there a spray I can buy, or what do I do?

[img]https://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u267/bcblondie05/worm.jpg[/img]

TZ -OH6
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Location: Mid Ohio

Little worms grow into big worms. The worst for tomatoes are beet army worms, whose moth lays dozens of eggs at one time.

Tomato fruit worms also start out eating leaves, but they are usually in lower numbers, and of course there are baby hornworms.

BT is the best pesticide for caterpillars/worms. Bonide Thuricide is a popular brand.

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Ozark Lady
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Location: NW Arkansas, USA zone 7A elevation 1561 feet

I mix Bt, fish emulsion liquid (feeding), and milk (fungicide) with the Bt and spray on a weekly basis.

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Susy
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Joined: Fri Jul 23, 2010 1:13 pm
Location: Winnipeg MB

Ok thanks guys. I've found about 8 now, all are bigger than this one.

I hate the thought of spraying chemicals on something I'm going to eat, though. Is there any other alternatives? Aside from picking off each worm?

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engineeredgarden
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Location: NW Alabama

Susy - BT is completely safe.....

EG

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microcollie
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Location: Western MA

Ozark Lady wrote:I mix Bt, fish emulsion liquid (feeding), and milk (fungicide) with the Bt and spray on a weekly basis.
Be careful using Bt too regularly. Pests can develop a resistance to it when overexposed. To my knowlege, there are already a few moths which are producing Bt-resistant offspring. One way around this is to leave a plant or two untreated, allowing the non-resistant strain to remain in the population.

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applestar
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Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

Do you see any wasps -- yellow jackets, paper wasps -- flying through the tomato foliage and crawling all over top and bottom of the leaves? If you do, then they're taking care of the "picking off each caterpillar" job for you.

There are also tiny predator wasps and larger flies that lay eggs on the caterpillar or on the leaves they eat. The hatched larvae eats them from inside out. Best way to attract them is to plant tiny, multi flowered herbs like dill, fennel, basil, cilantro. I also let parsley and carrots overwinter and flower in the 2nd year. Mint flowers will attract ALL kinds of wasps.

Check out the Beneficial Insects sticky at the top of the Organic Insect and Disease control forum.

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Susy
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Joined: Fri Jul 23, 2010 1:13 pm
Location: Winnipeg MB

Thanks so much for teh replies. If bt is safe I will go buy some. I don't really want to attact wasps since my son plays near the area. There are already some bubble bees from nearby flowers and my son tries to grab them, saying "flies!"
"no, buddy, BEEES!! OWIES!!!" lol.



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