Seriously, where are they coming from?

[Francis Barnswallow]

I've taken down the garden on the side of my house due to poor productivity but mostly because of caterpillar/moth damage. I then bought new patio tomato plants and put them in containers. They are inside my screen area. All are growing and producing better then any other tomato plant I ever had. That's the good part.

Now the bad part. I'm still getting army worms, leaf miners, horn worms, etc.....plus a few new caterpillars I've never seen before including a 2.5 inch dark brown caterpillar I caught chowing down on a tomato. I checked around the pool for holes in screens and I didn't find any, believe me I checked VERY carefully.

How are they getting in? Do they travel (from wherever they're coming from) at night?

[Smallgardener]

Yes, moths travel at night. Is your screne opened at night? I also would think that the screen is keeping the predators out and they can't get to the critters that are in there.

[applestar]

I can't go look for it right now, but a university site publication said it helps to turn off lights near the garden that are attracting moths at night, or to replace the bulbs with -- I think yellow -- bug light bulbs.

Also, I'm not fan of bug zappers, but if your screened/pool area is intended to be completely bug-free, then putting one inside the area might be one idea....

A possibility re: Where the moths are coming from -- caterpillars that are ready to pupate sometimes travel surprising distances from their food source. They might have snuck in, spun their cocoons, and eclosed inside.

[Francis Barnswallow]

My screen is always closed at night. I can't imagine the amount of animals and snakes that would love to roam around inside the screen, especially snakes *gets chills*. There are no lights on once we go inside for the night.

We do have 2 resident tree frogs that hide behind a clock during the day but come out at night. I know, because they jump on me when I let the dog out. Scares the bejesus out of me every time.