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#1
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Tomato (and pepper) Hornworms
Saturday, my tomato and pepper plants look great. I check the garden
mid-day Sunday and, HOLY COW, i'm missing 20% of my tomato foliage/ stems...about 20 tomatoes have been munched on...and my sole hungarian pepper plant has every fruit on it munched and all but two leaves are missing. I spent 1/2 hour or so plucking and killing hornworms...about 15 of them. Any solution to this besides checking the plants every day? How long do these things go on? Checking online it looks like they might be around for a couple of months. Some suggest parasitic wasps...but not sure how you go about managing those. Another suggestion was "bt"? Help? -- John |
#2
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Tomato (and pepper) Hornworms
On 2007-07-02, Teech wrote:
Saturday, my tomato and pepper plants look great. I check the garden mid-day Sunday and, HOLY COW, i'm missing 20% of my tomato foliage/ stems...about 20 tomatoes have been munched on...and my sole hungarian pepper plant has every fruit on it munched and all but two leaves are missing. I spent 1/2 hour or so plucking and killing hornworms...about 15 of them. Any solution to this besides checking the plants every day? How long do these things go on? Checking online it looks like they might be around for a couple of months. Some suggest parasitic wasps...but not sure how you go about managing those. Another suggestion was "bt"? Help? Sevin dust. -- John -- Wes Dukes (wdukes.pobox@com) Swap the . and the @ to email me please. is a garbage address. |
#3
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Tomato (and pepper) Hornworms
In article .com,
Teech wrote: Any solution to this besides checking the plants every day? How long do these things go on? Checking online it looks like they might be around for a couple of months. Some suggest parasitic wasps...but not sure how you go about managing those. Another suggestion was "bt"? Handpicking works well (they are easy to find, you can even hear them chomping). You could also use Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) which is a bacteria which will stop them eating and therefore kill them. Some formulations of Bt are organic approved and it's considered to be extremely safe and effective. You can get it as a powder to dust or a liquid to spray. Check the label to make sure it lists hornworms since different strains of Bt are used to control different types of catepillars. I have always had sufficient parasitic wasps around to take care of all of the hornworms. If you see one of the hornworms with the wasp pupae on its back, let it be. The wasps will hatch and then eat the hornworm from the inside out (leaving a deflated sack of a catepillar). The hatched wasp will then parasitize more hornworms and will take care of the problem pretty quickly with no effort on your part. Here are some photos: http://chatham.ces.ncsu.edu/growings.../hornworm.html The bottom photos show the white wasp pupae of a parastized hornworm. -- Steve |
#4
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Tomato (and pepper) Hornworms
Sevin dust. -- John Liquid sevin is what I heard. The powder is being picked up/ killing bees. FWIW Craig |
#5
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Tomato (and pepper) Hornworms
Yes.
The bees bring the dust grains back to the hive in the pollen baskets on their hind legs, and then the Sevin dust wipes the whole hive out. Bees need all the friends they can get these days. Be sure to spray the liquid in the evening, if possible, when the pollinators are less likely to be active. Bt is effective for tomato fruit worm as well. Use any pesticides, organics or otherwise, as sparingly as possible so as to encourage the parasitic wasps to regain their balance and do their job On Jul 2, 6:01 pm, Craig Watts wrote: Sevin dust. -- John Liquid sevin is what I heard. The powder is being picked up/ killing bees. FWIW Craig |
#6
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Tomato (and pepper) Hornworms
Just as an update...
I checked the plants in the morning and at night. Spent the next week finding/killing 2-3 a day. Went to Southern States and purchased a BT concentrate. I've done two treatments at this point...a week apart. No further infestation for over a week. -- John |
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