Horn Worms

ugh, finding hornworms on my tomato plants. any suggestions for getting rid of them? i've been picking them off by hand, but don't seem to be making much headway.

Thanks!

Are you looking for something organic or something synthetic? I'm sure someone will have an answer here. I have had something chewing on my leaves aswell.

If you aren't an organic gardener, Seven will do them in. My first garden I had here in my new house had literally dozens of them and I couldn't keep up with picking them all off. I did a lot of research and somewhere in all the info I read I found where the moth that lays the hornworm eggs uses petunias as a host plant. I had three huge hanging baskets of them on my front porch. They immediately went in the trash. I also have done a lot to encourage birds to hang around my yard by putting out flowers and seeds that they enjoy. In return, they are doing a wonderful job keeping down lots of the insect population.

i have petunias all over my patio, and volunteer petunias all over the yard, lol. i dug up the volunteers and put in planters on the patio, but they're still coming up in the yard. I have a bird feeder in the back yard, and lots of birds visit it, so I'm good there. Too bad i don't have a neighbor with a goose that could stay a day or so, lol. I prefer not to use pesticides as we have a dog and two cats, plus all the birds we enjoy. i'm wondering if a vinegar or hydrogen peroxide solution might do the trick?

Thanks again!

Yes, I have plenty of birds in my garden too. They go after the bugs quite well and have become pretty tame as well.

Now I'm curious what the organic method of control is. I am an organic gardner too.

Gosh, I don't know an organic method other than what I always do which is to pick them off by hand. Hopefully, someone else will come along who knows. BTW, the year I had so much trouble with horn worms, I ended up having to plant a few extra plants in order to get enough for table use. There weren't enough to can that year :-(

An organic option would be Diatomaceous Earth - it should take care of any worms - it does not harm earthworms though.
good luck!
bre

Thanks so much!!!

Yes, thanks, barhea.

Tomato Hornworm Control: Because they are so large hornworms are most often controlled in home gardens by handpicking. Once removed from the plant, they can be destroyed by dropping them into a bucket of soapy water. Beneficial insects including lacewings, braconoid and trichogramma wasps, and ladybugs attack the eggs. For best results, make releases when pest levels are low to medium. If populations are high, use a least-toxic, short-lived natural pesticide to establish control, then release predatory insects to maintain control. Both Dipel Dust (Bacillus thuringiensis, var. kurstaki) and Monterey Garden Insect Spray (spinosad) are very effective, especially on young caterpillars (larvae). If pest levels become intolerable, spot treat with botanical insecticides. Roto-tilling after harvest destroys overwintering pupae in the soil. This is especially effective since pupae are large and not buried very deeply in the soil. Results have shown that greater than 90% mortality is caused by normal garden tilling.

Note: If you have caterpillars that have parasitic wasp cocoons attached to them, don't destroy them! Collect them instead and allow them to eat unwanted or volunteer tomatoes until the wasps hatch inside. Now you've got an army of free, natural predators to work for you.

HTH

I use the sevin dust. there's actually directions on the can for use on treating you cats and dogs for fleas. Wet the plant first though so the dust sticks to them. I have about 20 cats running around my neighborhood and I haven't seen any ill effects on them besides lack of fleas. also can anyone explain how the diatenaceous earth works exactly? We sell it at the garden center I work at but I don't know anything about it and the package doesn't tell me quite what I want to know.

...and they're getting bigger, so gross, eeeew. i hate picking them off by hand, and i refuse to squash them. I really considered the organic and the seven pesticides, but i hate killing anything, so i guess i'm stuck picking them off and throwing them across the fence to the wooded lot. there are tomato leaves etc over there from when i pruned mine back, so they can eat those. i'm such a wuss.. my husband thinks it's hilarious to watch me picking them off, and running to the fence to toss them. thanks for all your help, folks!!! :)

You're not alone:). I will BT the cabbage loopers and spray the Japanese beetles with soap, but I tink the Hornworms are just too cool looking. I also like the Hawkmoths they become. I carefully transfer them to American Nightshade plants that they also love, and which are pretty far from the veggie garden :).

Dipel Dust is very hard to apply in my opinion. I would buy liquid Bacillus thuringiensis (sometimes called BT Worm Killer) instead. Then you can put it in a cleaned out Ortho Dial-n-Spray and give a good coating to all your tomato leaves. Once the hornworm eats some of the coated leaf, they will stop eating and eventually die.

My problem is not hornworms but fruitworms eating the fruit. BT resolve that.

This message was edited May 23, 2008 9:23 AM

So it looks like the worst is over, but those suckers got HUGE. They moved over to the jalapenos, and were huge.. it got to the point of me cutting off the leaf with the worm on it and throwing it over the fence, lol! I sure didn't want to pick them off, ugh. I haven't seen any the last couple of days, but I don't know if they cycle or not. Keeping an eye out. If they do recur, I'll try some organic pesticide.

BTW.. my tomato plant currently has 21 tomatoes on it, and I can't begin to count the number of jalapenos on my pepper. I can't WAIT to eat!!! :)

Thanks you guys!!

There's a garden tool called a "Dustin Mizer" that does a great job with powders. I've used it for with BT powder, and diatomaceous earth, and it would work well with Sevin dust too. I bought online through Cooper Seeds. There are a bunch of places that sell it. The key is to use it when plants have a good coating of dew. The moisture allows the powder to adhere to the plant and provides good coverage with minimal waste. The picture below is borrowed from the manufacturer/importer website: http://www.sd-exports.org/r_j_winmore/applicator/applicator.htm The site has a little more information about the duster.

David R


This message was edited May 23, 2008 12:39 PM

Thanks for the link David and the information on how best to use it.

BT is also known as thuricide, if anyone happens to see that in a store.

You can also use an old piece of clean panty hose to apply your dust. Just filled a potion of one of one of the toes and tie a knot in the end and shake it over the plants. Works great. I prefer to use the liquid dipel, simply because it's easier for me to manipulate the spray around some areas I have trouble getting to since my vertical doesn't work quite as well as it use too. LOL

Thanks for the hint Doc.

No problem, Dean...I'm cheap and since I'm using organics I'm not afraid to use something like that to shake on the dust. If you chose to try this with sevin, do not do it when it's windy, wear appropriate clothing and shake carefully on top of where you want your nuclear stuff to go. Discard the stocking, wash up well.