Tomato Pests and Their Control

Tomato Pests And Other Things That Crawl Around In The Night

Slugs & Snails
If you are going to be a pest be, a slimy pest and this pair are, you know where they’ve been by the trail of slime left behind in their tracks. They feed on the soft tissue of a number of vegetables and flowers and can munch their way through a young tomato plant stem or two in a night.
Control:
I find an un-broken line of wood ash or sawdust stops their capper, but if you are the sporting type and can’t sleep at night you can go big slug hunting. This only needs a torch and a can of water with a drop of washing up liquid in it. Look around the base of your plants and they will be there, then, give them a swim in your can of soapy water, end of problem. (For now) A chemical alternative, which does not involve wandering around in the dark but is not so, organic is the use of Slug Pellets these can be anywhere from Harrods to your local nursery.


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Fruitworms
Fruitworms affect Bean, Pea, Peppers, Potatoes tomatoes, squash and corn, when found in corn they are called earworms. They are about 1 inch (2.5cm) long caterpillars. That can be either green or brown in colour with dark stripes down their sides
Control:
Spray with Bth in spring when the young are hatching. Introduce beneficial insects like lacewings or trichogramma wasps.

Hornworms
Hornworms can be as much as 4 inches (10cm) long and as thick as a finger, hornworms are a light green in colour with white streaks across the body. Small eyelike spots decorate their sides; their backsides sport a red or black spiky tail. They can devour most of a tomato plant in a day or two. Adults are large 4 to5 inches (10 to 12.5cm), brownish gray moths with orange spots on the abdomen. Eggs are tiny greenish yellow balls on the undersides of tomato leaves.
Control:
Spray small ones with Bth or neem oil soap. When they’re larger handpick and drop them into a can of soapy water. If you find a hornworm wearing clusters of small white eggs on it’s back leave it be . the eggs belong to a small braconid wasp that parasitizes and destroys the worm.

Eelworms
There are two forms of eelworm. The most serious is the Potato Eelworm. Infestations come originally from land where potatoes have been repeatedly grown. Affected plants will wilt in the hot sun, and will develop yellow and dead patches on the lower leaves.
Control:
There is no chemical control available for the amateur gardener.
Rotate potato and tomato planting around different parts of the garden. Avoid returning to the same planting site for as many seasons as possible to delay a damaging build up of the pest.
Once soil has become heavily infested it may be seven or more years before it is worthwhile trying to grow potatoes again. Self-set potatoes should be removed or they will defeat the object of crop rotation. Lift potatoes as soon as the tubers are ready to limit the increase in cyst numbers. Potato and tomato roots should be dried off and then burnt on the part of the garden where they grew. Plants grown in infested soil should not be transplanted to cyst-free areas, and the roots, including those of weeds, should not be put on the compost heap. Tomatoes can be raised in growing-bags which isolate the roots from the underlying infested soil and so prevent infestation.

Whiteflies
Whiteflies are small, a little larger than a pinhead, with tiny snow white wings. Whiteflies suck the sap from the plants and usuall gather on the undersides of leaves or near soft, succulent growth.
Control:
Natural predators include lacewings, ladybugs and mantids. Spray with insecticidal soap, or use garlic spray to repel whiteflies from plants.

Red Spider Mite
Red Spider mites are very difficult to see but you know you have them when you can see a silvery sheen on the leaves and fine white webs appearing around the leaves and stem of the plant.
Control:
Apart from misting the air, try the biological control Phytoseiulus persimilis a predatory mite. Biological controls can be very effective if introduced early enough. Azobenzene smoke is also quite effective.


Colorado Beetles
These fingernail-size beetles have domed –shaped shells brightly decorated with black and yellow stripes. The adults lay clusters of orange eggs on the undersides of leaves. The eggs then hatch, revealing lavae that look like dull orange blobs with black legs and head. They will attack any member of the potato family.
Control:
Spray with neem or Btsd. Introduce beneficial nematodes, ladybirds, lacewings etc. Handpicking is effective for adults, lavae, and eggs.