Once upon a time on usenet Bloke Down The Pub wrote:
"F Murtz" wrote in message
eb.com...
Jeßus wrote:
On Mon, 4 Jan 2016 12:07:54 +1300, "~misfit~"
wrote:

Once upon a time on usenet F Murtz wrote:
How dis these little green caterpillars get up on my elevated
tomato seedlings and eat all the leaves?spose some naughty moth
flew up and laid them when I was not looking?

Probably - or a butterfly. You really need to watch them 24/7 to be
sure. Or
just remove the caterpillars when you find them and incinerate
them - before
they eat *all* of the leaves is good.

Yep. If there's a lot of caterpillars/seedlings, I can recommend
Yate's Success. It's just a spray on bacteria which is perfectly
safe, unless you happen to be a caterpillar, sawfly larvae or
similar. Highly effective.

It was strange because I had two lots, 10 cups big tomatoes ten cups
tiny tomato strains in the one tray and they only ate the large
variety seedlings.have since sprinkled tomato dust on, don't know if
that works and if new leaves will come.


It probably will. The active ingrediant in most 'tomato dust' is Carbaryl,
an extremely insect-toxic synthetic chemical manufactured by Bayer. I hate
the stuff but admit to having used it (carefully) a couple of times on wasps
nest - because I hate wasps as much and can't control where they get to.

Last year I bought some yellow cherry tomatoes from the supermarket, I
enjoyed the taste so volunteered a couple of tomatoes in to what
would have been a fallow piece of ground. Considering there were
only 2 or 3 tomatoes squeezed over the ground and raked in I have a
good crop. However I have, randomly, red cherry tomatoes in amongst
the plants.

That's not unusual at all. By far most of the tomatoes sold in supermarkets
are at the least hybrids (which don't breed true) and just as likely
genetically engineered*.

* Australia's first genetically engineered commercial tomato variety was
imported from the US in 1993. Tomato fruits are 'designed' by nature to go
soft and break down not long after ripening so that the flesh of the fruit
releases the seeds and becomes compost for the new plants. Researchers
isolated the gene responsible for this and, although they couldn't remove it
(then at least) they found that, by using a virus to inject another copy of
the gene into the DNA of the plant the two copies cancelled each other out.
The result was tomatoes that stay firm for up to 10 days after ripening.

Since then, due to public backlash the companies doing the GE are more
secretive so the gods only know what's going on with current commercial
varieties. All I know is that most tomatoes bought in the last decade leave
a 'cucumberish' aftertaste in my oesophagus for hours (trans-genetic
engineering?) and as I dislike cucumbers I mostly refuse to buy them. I say
'mostly' because as I get older sometimes my eyes over-rule my memory and I
see some tomatoes that look and feel awesome (which after all is the only
things they're engineered for) so buy a few - only to regret it after eating
them.

Back on topic, if I find any worms in the tomatoes they,
so far, have only been in the red tomatoes. I am guessing that, like
me, the bugs in my garden are traditionalists and don't believe
tomatoes should be anything but red. The red and the yellow both
taste fine and straight off the vine they taste great.

I find them on my hybrids, on any tomatoes actually fairly randomly. I think
it's just where the moth (?) manages to get to to lay eggs. I was a bit late
in hand-removing one the other day and it's pupated inside a curled leaf and
silk 'nest'. It was quite fragile but I've tried to not damage it and have
it in a jar and am waiting to see what emerges. Are we all talking about the
green 'inchworm' type larvae that only have legs at the front and back of
the body?
--
Shaun.

"Humans will have advanced a long, long way when religious belief has a cozy
little classification in the DSM*."
David Melville (in r.a.s.f1)
(*Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders)