We get a lot of questions about urban garden pest control and today we wanted to share some good info on some of the insects that threaten the beloved tomato plant.
Tomato Hornworms
The tomato hornworm (Manduca quinquemaculata) is an ugly beast. One look at them and you will easily see where they got their name thanks to the prominent horn that makes them look far more intimidating than they really are. The hornworm quickly defoliates the top of a tomato plant but they are often difficult to spot because their coloring allows them to blend easily with the plants they eat. They are also more likely to be found feasting on the underside the plant during the heat of day, preferring to come to the outer leaves only around dusk.
Hornworm Treatment
The most common way to eradicate the tomato hornworm is by picking off the offenders as they appear. To avoid them before they become a problem, rototilling the soil after the season ends will expose and destroy the pupae before they become a problem. A respectable level of preventative biological control has been realized with the use of Bacillus thuringensis or BT (soon to be available in the UrbanFig Shop)
Aphids
Aphids are tiny little weapons of mass destruction that literally such the juices out of your tomato plants. As if that wasn’t bad enough, they can often infect the plants with diseases they pick up along the way. Sounds like common street trash you’d see on COPS, doesn’t it?
Aphid Treatment
Aphids can be treated in several ways. Biologically, ladybugs and lacewings, along with some species of bird are known predators, and introducing ladybugs to your garden will almost certainly end your aphid infestation. Culturally, you can hose aphids from infested plants, trim away badly damaged areas and spray your tomato plants with non-toxic insecticidal soap. Neem oil has also been shown effective in the eradication of some species of aphid, though not all.
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
I have a tremendous ladybug presence in my yard. Makes me super happy! Hornworms tho have been a problem in the past. I have learned what they look like and last year made a fairly good attempt at keeping them off my plants by hand.
I had a lot of hornworms last year and they made life rather difficult for a while but we won in the end.
Did you know that Hornworms make a terrible sound when you pull them off the plant. They seriously give me the heeby jeebies !!! I have been using BT ..so I am seriously hoping I won’t have to encounter these demon worms !!
Hrm. I don’t remember a sound!
Would Neem Oil work on fungi on my Plum tree leaves?
Just planted a plum tree a few months ago and the leaves have theses little and in come cases not so little holes !! thank you !
K
I would definitely give Neem oil a try before anything else.
The easiest way to find the nasty tomato hornworm is to go out in the morning when it’s quiet, shake each plant, they make a snapping noise to try and scare off predators, then snip them in half with scissors and leave them to die, I grew up on a tomato farm, I speak from experience.
We always have the braconid wasp in our garden, and they take care of the tomato hornworm without us getting involved. They young braconid wasps hatch out after digesting the original worm and multiply by laying eggs in other worms. if you see back of the hornworm covered with white cocoons of the braconid wasp, leave the hornworm alone so the cocoons will mature and hatch out to infect other hornworms. If you destroy a hornworm with those cocoons on it, you will destroy a lot of beneficial insects.
A little birdseed kept birds landing on my tomato cages on their way to the seeds. They noticed the worms too and gobbled them up!
Hornworms bring out the killer instinct in me. I once had a horde of them on my plants. I dug a hole, picked the buggers off the plants, dumped them in the hole, put a shovel of dirt over them, and stamped and stamped on the dirt until they were all good and dead!
Last year I did have a few but the cardinals were quite fond of them, and I saw them visit often. I repeatedly tied up my fines to expose the inside areas of the plants, that grew quite tall. I lost only a few tomatoes and was happy to help Mrs. Cardinal find juicy food for her babies. I can’t kill the worms. I am far too soft hearted. I prefer to let nature do it.
Conserve Naturalite works fast on caterpillars and it’s a natural product. Spinosad is the active ingredient. I’ve used BT in the past but found it to be to slow for my liking.
Neem is a good natural pesticide but it must be used at first sign of insects because it works as a growth regulator of sorts to stop insect from molting properly to go along with its stop feeding mechanism. Neem oil doesn’t suffocate insects the way horticulture oil does. Thats often a mistaken mechanism of Neem