swthrt792
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I'm having trouble with tomato worms

I am haveing trouble with tomato worms eating my plants. Is there anything I can do to keep them away?

treehopper
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Look for poop, look up from there, find 'em and KILL EM!!!!!

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rainbowgardener
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yeah, they are a little hard to spot, because so well-camouflaged but once you spot them they are big and slow and easy to hand pick.

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rainbowgardener
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there are (at least) a couple different beasties that could be called tomato worms. I was thinking of the tomato (or closely related tobacco) hornworm, the large green one.

There's also a tomato fruitworm that looks like this:

[img]https://erec.ifas.ufl.edu/tomato-scouting-guide/images/bugs/fruitworm/IIMG36.JPG[/img]

it's particularly nasty because it spends much of its development inside the tomato, so you don't know it is there until you open up the tomato and find a gross ruined mess inside.

dustyrivergardens
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I grow a lot of tomatoes I do spray captain jacks dead bug its listed organic it is spinosad and works great on tomato hornworms

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PunkRotten
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I had a lot of them last year. I think I did a good job in handling them they did not cause much damage. The best thing to do since you know they are there is be diligent. You have to search your plants up and down looking for them and then hand pick them off. A good way to find them is look for their poop and also look for defoliated stems. I used to prune off their defoliated stems too afterwards. This way if I see more defoliated stems I know it is new damage and a worm is close by. The only other thing is hope for wasps to get them. Last year I had no such luck. But this year I see plenty of wasps and have seen one actually catch and eat a caterpillar. The other wasp is the one that lays eggs in/on the caterpillar. So if you see like little white cocoons all over a caterpillar leave it alone.

Bobberman
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Did you know the moth of the horn tomato worm look like a small humming bird! A article was in one of the garden magazines!

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gixxerific
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The sphinx moth looks nothing like a hummingbird but they do fly somewhat like them, hovering to eat.

They are huge I saw one last year right at dusk. It came out of nowhere and scared the poo out of me. My first thought was that is was a bat. Tried to get some pics but that failed.

Bobberman
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I guess the horn worm moth is like a humming bird the way it hoovers but there is a humming bird moth. Here is a nice link to both of them them with pictures!


https://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/insect/05517.html



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