Worms Eating Tomato Plants!

[citychickinthecountry]

I came outside the other day and noticed one huge hornworms eating two one of my beefsteak tomato plants and one starting to eat a second. My tomatoes are still green and are about mid-stage in their growth (about mid-size). I check them daily, so I was shocked to see how much they ate in just one evening.

Then this evening, I noticed all of these little tiny grey and black striped worms (I've never seen these before) all over my other tomato plants. They were eating the tomatoes, turning the bottom of the tomatoes a blackish brown color (like they were laying eggs in it or something) and eating holes in the leaves. Luckily most of the plants are still intact, but most of the tomatoes are a loss at this point. I still have some tomatoes and a few blossoms are still coming out, but most of the tomatoes are a complete loss.

I also found a baby hornworm on another tomato plant. All were fed to my chickens (which they loved). I cut off all of the infected tomatoes, removed all of the worms that I saw (and fed them to my chickens or killed them) and removed most of the infected leaves because they just looked so bad and seemed to be dying anyway (yellowing).

Any idea what these black and grey worms are? I wish I had taken a picture. And any idea what I can do to stop them?!?!? I moved a dill plant that I had planted near my daughter's cabbage plant to protect it from worms and caterpillars (for a school project) near the tomato plants to see if that helps in the meantime. Ugh!

I'm somewhat of a newbie...I've worked so hard to get my tomato plants this far and now I'm about to cry.

 

[hoodat]

I haven't had any hornworms on my tomatos yet but i do have some of those smaller ones you described. Hornworms are easy to miss. They are so well camouflaged you can be looking right at them and not see them if they don't move.
Your best bet is to give your tomatos a good dusting or spraying with Thuricide. It's entirely organic and harmless to animals. Dust is the easiest to use if you only have a few plants but can sometimes be hard to find.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Those small worms are probably tomato fruit worms, though they come in various colors for me. That Thuricide Hoodat mentioned is a form of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), in case it is marketed under a different name in your area. It is a standard organic caterpillar control. It does take a bit of time for it to work, but it can be effective. If you are not using organic methods, you can use Sevin or Permethrin products, just be sure to use it in accordance with the instructions and try spraying at dusk when the beneficial pollinators are less likely to be affected as much. You'll still kill some of the good guys if you spray at dusk, just not as many. I'm pretty sure the tomato fruit worm is the same thing as the corn ear worm, so if you also have corn and an infestation of your tomatoes, you may want to be prepared for problems on your corn.

I find handpicking an effective control for the hornworm. They can do a lot of physical damage, but if the plant is reasonably well established, I find the tomato plant comes back quite well. It is usuallt not as bad as it looks but the hornworm does need to come off. The smaller ones especially can be hard to find, but I look for the droppings to indicate they are there, then do a good search.

Good luck!

 

[vfem]

I am blessed to say I have lots of wasps that seemed to have destroyed most of my hornworms last year. I haven't seen a single one this year. I plant a lot of flowers around my garden to attract some of the regular bugs that do good work, like the lady bugs. Maybe put out some french marigolds, cosmos, petunias or let some radish go to flower?

I hand pick off when I can though. Because I know some little fuzzy butts who want them...

You got chickens to share all those hornworm treats with?!

 

[citychickinthecountry]

Yes, I do have some little fuzzy butts...I was giving them the worms I found yesterday and they were loving it.

Thing is, there were so many of the smaller worms that I'm sure I didn't get all of them. The chickens especially love the hornworms since they are so big and juicy. Yuck!

 

[desertcat]

Don't know if I'd try to grow tomatoes (or much of anything else) if it weren't for my chickies. It takes a lot to gross me out, but hornworms will do it in a heartbeat. Not to mention it's a convienent way to dispose of other things that aren't suitable to drag back to the house!

 

[ducks4you]

My fuzzy butts like all of my offerings, too, including the first of the 15 goldfish that died from those that I bought and put into my (100 gallong) horse water trough last Friday. It's funny how they don't know what it is, just that I offered it, so it MUST be edible and worth fighting over!

 

[hoodat]

Gramma used to say,"The onliest thing a chicken won't eat is somethin that eats them first".