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Old 18-02-2005, 02:24 AM
Antipodean Bucket Farmer
 
Posts: n/a
Default Tomato Caterpllar?

Hi Everybody,

In the past couple of weeks, I am getting the first
ripe tomatoes of the season. Yay - they are good.

But, just now, I went to pick one, but sort of knocked
it right off the vine, without any pulling. And I
find...

Right inside the fruit, where it was connected to the
stem... A caterpillar, about 1 cm or so long, white-
ish, with a black head. It had definitely been
*inside* the fruit, and had sort of dug itself in.
There was a small amount of black stuff and damage
immediately surrounding the bug. But there was *not*
any sign of entry or tunneling.

So maybe this pest came through the stem? Perhaps some
butterfly or moth laid an egg in the flower?

Note that I am in New Zealand, and had vaguely heard
(I.e. "I-read-it-on-the-Internet-so-it-must-be-true")
that we don't have the regular tomato borer worms here.

Any ideas on ID and defence?

Thanks...


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