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Caterpillars Eat My Tomatoes

10 years ago

I do not know ABC of gardening. I was thinking to grow only chili, now I have grown other vegetables too. I did not collect information before I started gardening. Just I saw something I bought it and grow it. I am so stupid and ignorant.

I have some cherry and black turfle tomato plants. I started them from the seeds they are growing very well and getting flowers, and fruits. I have not observed my tomato plants regularly, I give more attention to my super hot chilies.

Today I checked my tomato plants and I found a lot of caterpillars, they eat a lot of my tomatoes.

Some of the damage tomatoes I collected.

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I did not setup very well for these tomato plants.

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I learned about Caterpillars from Jean001. I killed a lot of them today. Thank you Jean001 for helping me.

Now I am thinking to cover the fruits with plastic bags to protect from caterpillars, if you have any better idea please tell me how to deal this problem.

Thanks in advance.

Caelian

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Comments (10)

jean001a
10 years ago
Sorry about the disappointment. It seems especially terrible when our tomatoes don't survive as well as we expect.

Can you obtain Bacillus thuringiensis, also called Bt, in Denmark? (It might also be called a "natural caterpillar killer.") If so, use it on a regular basis. It kills only the caterpillars less than half grown, but I suspect that's mostly what you have.

The truly good news is that you can use Bt even on the day you harvest.

Don't beat yourself up about this event. We were all beginners at one time. (Even me!) With time, you'll be helping other folks.
chilliwin
Original Author
10 years ago
Jean001a, thank you again for the reply.

I think I can find BT here. It is a very good lesson for me, next season I hope I can do better.

I feel lucky to be here with a lot of resourceful, helpful and serious people like you.

Caelian
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I use a BT spray to prevent them but I usually start spraying the leaves and fruit once a week as soon as the plants start setting fruit. The only problem is that the worms have to ingest the BT so they still might bite your tomatoes before they die--I haven't tried using the BT after they are already infested with worms so I'm not sure how well it would work.
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chilliwin
Original Author
10 years ago
A short video of a Bee and a Caterpillar :-)

Here is a link that might be useful: The Bee
calliope
10 years ago
Jean has good advice, but I will warn you about covering any plants with plastic bags. It is not a good thing. It creates a tiny greenhouse over your plants, and that means heat will be collected inside it, and it will get too hot on sunny days, and also it collects moisture, also not a good thing. It shall also hamper pollination, and that is not a good thing if you want fruits. If you do wish to cover a plant to stop insects from eating it, use a fine mesh material like net or tulle.
rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
10 years ago
Kevin....nice video....but not of a bee. Perhaps a yellow jacket or similar.
chilliwin
Original Author
10 years ago
Calliope, thank you for the advice, I will try to find out some thing like you mentioned.

Rhizo_1, thank you for the compliment. Should I change the name? Any suggestion will be appreciated :-).

I have only a few plants and due to the problems of space I was not able to access these plants they were blocked by my super hot chilies. Now I managed it and check them twice a day. Since last few days I have been killing many of them and removed a lot of suckers and old leaves. Somewhat I think it is under control.

Caelian
Kimmsr
10 years ago
The Bacillus thuringiensis - Kurstaki, BtK, suggested for control of the Tomato Hornworm will do that for only a short period of that pests life. Since there are about 6 different strains of the Bt bacterium one needs to know which one to use to control which type of insect. Just stating BT, Bacillus thuringiensis, can be misleading.
chilliwin
Original Author
10 years ago
Kimmsr, thank you for the input.

Caelian
chilliwin
Original Author
10 years ago
Hi Rhizo_1, just I learned what you meant about "the bee" from our one of new subjects. I am going to say again "English is not easy for me". I was thinking about the title and on the other hand I though "yellow jacket" is an "insect trap". Thank you very much for the correction, I am very happy to get your point :-) now. I always welcome giving correction to me.

Caelian
rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
10 years ago
You do a wonderful job of explaining yourself in a foreign language. I forget, sometimes, that you are from Denmark.

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