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Tomato worms

A

Anonymous-0

Well-known Member
I was out in the garden the other day and admiring how it was coming along. TOmatoes are overcoming their lack of calcium (tip I got off of this forum).

Went out yesterday and found 3 tomato worms and 3 more today. Where do they come from? A wasp carry their eggs or a bug of some sort? Just wondering.

Is there something I can out on the plants to prevent these worms? I am not a big fan of putting chemicals on things I or my family will be eating.

THanks, Brett
 
(quoted from post at 13:49:07 08/01/12) I was out in the garden the other day and admiring how it was coming along. TOmatoes are overcoming their lack of calcium (tip I got off of this forum).

Went out yesterday and found 3 tomato worms and 3 more today. Where do they come from? A wasp carry their eggs or a bug of some sort? Just wondering.

Is there something I can out on the plants to prevent these worms? I am not a big fan of putting chemicals on things I or my family will be eating.

THanks, Brett
Click to expand...

If you don't want chemicals on your vegetables you better stop buying at grocery store. OH some stores have organic vegetables, they look terrible, lots of insect damage and small in size and a lot higher.
 
There is a wasp that lays eggs on tomatoe worm and the eggs turn into a larva that will kill the tomatoe worm.
 
They're the caterpillar stage of a sphinx moth. If you check your 'maters often and pick them off, you should be OK. If you have chickens, they'll fight over 'em.
 
you can try dusting the plants with diatomacious earth powder, garden centers will have it. its a fine dust from a plankton critter in the ocean. it plugs up the breathing holes on insects. i use sevin insecticide on my tomatoes to keep the little devils off.
 
They are nocturnal, light em up at night and you will find them or look under leaves near the most recent growth, they'll be hanging out there, til dusk. You can absolutely pick them off by hand and win, but you have to stay on them, I have done the same, last year I had them.

There is a wasp that is an enemy of them, the wasp lays eggs on the caterpillar, and those eggs feed off it, it won't grow right, they say to leave those, I don't cause they still do damage, the wasps will eventually kill it, hatch and

Fall tillage is a good way to break the cycle, that and rotation of where you plant, I do not have them this year.
Hornworm

Hornworm
 
Hopefully not, but I did work the soil quite a bit, late last fall, early December, then in the spring at least 2x, I planted kind of late, usually the patch of soil I turned into a garden, adjacent to the house is loaded with tomatoes, actually too much, but do to the blight and other things, extra plants made up for it, this year I planted a lot less, made rows of other things I like, and believe it or not the tomatoes I have now came up from last years seeds, too many tomatoes, I transplanted those cultivated by hand once the fence is up, I do not see any. Good thing is I have floodlights directly over the entire area, so I can light em up and catch all of them.

There will be a finite amount of them if you can light them up, and unless you have a field of tomatoes, you should be able to get all of them, I did last year, picked them off by hand, they will ruin a crop, as this time of year, the rapid growth needs to be done and they need to flower, darned things sever off the flowers and the plant does not catch up, so you lose significant amounts of produce.
 
After the garden is done, I usually cut everything down and clean it all up. Then I till everything left over down ito the soil. Then I rake and sweep all of my leaves in the fall onto the graden and then burn them. Then till the ashes into the soil and then I am done with it until spring. Never tried getting the worms at night. Don't really have a light out there except a flashlight.

Thanks
 
When I was growing up we called them "tobacco worms" because they ate the heck out of tobacco plants. I read recently that tobacco horn worms and tomato horn worms are slightly different species, but either will eat tomatoes or tobacco because both plants are in the same family.
 
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