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DownriverGardener
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Posts: 121
Joined: Tue Jun 12, 2012 2:41 pm
Location: Zone 5B

A few of my fruits have small worm holes in them.whatnext?

I have a lot of healthy looking fruits, but a handful of them seem to have small worm holes in them. Are those fruits now worthless? Does a fruit ever heal itself? Sorry for the newby type questions, this is my first time with Maters :oops:

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rainbowgardener
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Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
Location: TN/GA 7b

The fruit cannot heal itself. If the tomato is ripe, you can pick it and just cut the bad parts out. If it's not ripe, it may be a loss, because being open to the outside like that, it will probably get rotten before it gets ripe.

Start looking carefully for your culprit. If they are almost dime sized holes, that could well be hornworms. They are big green caterpillars, but for their size amazingly hard to spot, since they mostly hold still and are exactly the color of the plant.

Other possibilities could be slugs, birds, squirrels (if the holes are shallow and a bit ragged)

MaryDel
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Posts: 182
Joined: Tue Jun 15, 2010 8:42 am
Location: Delaware

The holes could be from stinkbugs. They are spreading all over the country. I've killed several on my tomatoes this year.

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DownriverGardener
Senior Member
Posts: 121
Joined: Tue Jun 12, 2012 2:41 pm
Location: Zone 5B

the holes are really small, like pea size. Luckily I haven't seen an increase in them so far.

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applestar
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Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 7:21 pm
Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

Maybe tomato fruitworm/corn ear worm?

If the fruits have started to blush, you can pick them and bring them inside. Keep them in a screened, ventilated container to ripen. Left outside, fruit flies and ants and other bugs will find the hole immediately and hasten spoilage.

I use a screened container because even inside, I can get sudden unexplained explosion of fruit flies and I don't want to take a chance. Sometimes, I just use a paper towel-cushioned glass bowl with a tea towel or a napkin rubber banded on top. Then I can peek in frequently and check that everything is OK.



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