Remove all leafs you find with it and watch the plants they infest (they tend to stick to a single plant they like). Luckily Cali is waaaaaaaaaaaay more proactive than Florida about how seriously they take plant imports into the state so it's not out of control there even though it's been around since the late 90s. It's yet another thing trying to destroy citrus in this country.

Follow the link. This website is SUPER helpful for things like this. Most likely the white things are parasitic wasps. So at the website on the left hand side you can click caterpillars and browse through those, or you can look through wasps and find the wasp which will lead to the caterpillar. If this does not help you can always send them a pic and ask them personally. David Here is a link that might be useful: What's That Bug

I LIVE IN NW FLORIDA AND AM GROWING DATIL`S VERY SUCCESSFULLY HERE 8 MILES SOUTH OF GENEVA AL. I HAVE 5 PLANTS 3 YRS OLD THAT PRODUCED 400 PEPPERS THIS SUMMER AND ARE STILL BLOOMING . I EXPECT AT LEAST ANOTHER HUNDRED BEFORE THE COLD WEATHER SHUTS THEM DOWN WHEN I BRING THEM INDOORS FOR THE COLD WINTER WEEKS...

Here's an article I wrote a few years ago which I think will help clear up some misconceptions and explain more about BER. I had lost this article, but Bets, who posts here, posted it and I was able to get it back thanks to Betsy, &&&&&&&&&& With BER there is NO problem with absorption of Ca++ though the roots. The problem is maldistribution within the plant that can be induced by a number of stresses which include uneven delivery of water, too much N, growing in too rich soil, too hot, too cold, too wet, too dry you name it. As the plants mature they can better handle the stresses that can induce BER so usually it goes away. The two exceptions are first, if the soil has NO Ca++ as confirmed with a soil test, and that's a rare condition, and second, if the soil is too acidic in which Case Ca++ is bound in the soil. Again, adding lime, egg shells and on and on can not and will not prevent BER b'c absorption of Ca++ thru the roots is OK. Paste tomatoes are especially susceptible to BER and I think someone in a post above mentioned that. If you go to the top of this first page and click on the FAQ link and scroll down you'll also find an article about BER in case some of you have never looked at the FAQ's And there's some darn good articles there as well, but I wouldn't pay any attention to the variety list b'c it's way out of date. The old information about BER being caused solely by lack of soil Ca++ has been shown to be wrong with research that's been done in the last 20 years or so, but it's going to take another generation before the real story gets into books, websites, magazines, etc. Most of the better websites already have the correct information. BER affects not only tomatoes, but peppers, squash, cabbage, cauliflower, etc., and it's a huge multimillion dollar problem for the industry, which is WHY all that reasearch was done. For instance, when tissues were taken from a plant that has BER fruits and was assayed for Ca++, the normal level of Ca++ was found, it just wasn't getting to the blossom end of fruits. And there's also a condition called internal BER where the fruits look fine, no evidence of BER externally, but when you cut open the fruit the inside is black Hope that helps Carolyn