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Two Signs of a Tomato Worm
Tomato worms, also known as tomato hornworms are not guests you want in your garden. They are 3-4 inches long, green, and fat, with a distinctive horn on the back end.
Here are two signs to look for to know if you have tomato worms on your tomato plants.
1. Missing leaves and fruit. You’ll see branches of your plant that have been eaten clean of leaves and small fruit. One worm can eat a lot, but if you have many branches that have been eaten on, you may have more than one worm.
2. Bug droppings. Tomato worms have distinctive cubish droppings. They are large enough to spot on lower leaves or the ground around your tomato plants. The worm in the top photo is leaving a worm poo in the picture. Here are some found after they had fallen. Click any of the pictures to make them bigger
Once you know you have a worm problem, check under the leaves and on the branches of your tomato plants thoroughly until you find the culprits. I pull them off and smash them. If you want a cool science experiment with the kids, keep one in a quart jar about a third filled with dirt and keep feeding it. These worms will bury themselves in dirt to build a cocoon. After a few weeks, they hatch into a LARGE moth (yes, we’ve hatched one before). We’ve also kept a moth we caught and it laid eggs that hatched into super tiny tomato worms which I had to dispose of before they got any grand ideas!
So when you’re out visiting your garden, keep your eye open for signs of a tomato worm on your tomato plants and get those bugs off before they eat all of your hard garden work!
2012-11-09 17:40:03
Source: http://foodstorageandsurvival.com/two-signs-of-a-tomato-worm/
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