Tomato worm id please.

[Lee]

Here's a photo of some worms I found feasting on my tomato
foliage. Any idea what kind of worm this is?

Thanks,

Lee

http://tomatopalooza.org/CMV08_files/tomwormc.JPG

[mdvpc]

Lee: I dont know the name, but have had those myself, but strangely enough, only on parsely. I took care of them with pyrethrin.

[ssi912]

army worms! use liquid seven if pyrethrin dos not work.

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by ssi912

army worms! use liquid seven if pyrethrin dos not work.

Agree!!!

Worth

[b54red]

I agree also. Keep a close eye out for their return after the next rain. Last year they would appear in waves about a week or two apart and if you were a little slow in taking care of them they could be quite destructive.

[Lee]

Thanks for the id! Do these things attack the fruit, or just
the foliage?
Foliage, I can handle as they are easy to spot and squish! Fruit, well that's another story...

Thanks,

Lee

[b54red]

They will eat both. They can usually first be seen as very small caterpillars on the underside of leaves usually lower on the plant. When they are really small they sometimes don't even chew all the way through the leaf and can go unnoticed for a short while. It doesn't usually take them too long to get your attention though.

[Lee]

I'm a little too observant sometimes. Checking the plants out
morning and night tends to do that..... On the plus side, I'm
pretty good at spotting newly eaten leaves or fresh worm poo.
I'll start checking the underside of the leaves as well now!

Thanks,

Lee

[kath]

Will bt take care of them? Just found 2 today-very small (1/2"?) and on the underside of the lower leaves of just one plant. Just had a nasty aphid invasion of about 50% of my plants on the lowest leaves-trimmed and then sprayed insecticidal soap, and now these guys.

[b54red]

Bt was not very successful last year on them and I had to resort to Sevin which worked great. May have been because of the frequent rains we had last year when they appeared. I've only run across a few chewing caterpillars that weren't controlled by bt, with the added advantage of not having a waiting period after using it. I usually try bt first but don't delay too long if it isn't working or they can get out of control fast.

[Dewayne mater]

I searched on this site and some claim BT will do the trick on army worms. However, they are not included on the list of worms killed by BT on the bottle I have in my possession, so, I'm not sure if it'll work or not. Anyone know for sure?

[b54red]

I know for sure it didn't work last year on the ones I had on my tomatoes; but I have had some success with it at other times on other crops.

[kath]

Thanks for the feedback about bt. I have only seen 2 army worms and just squished 'em, but I'll keep looking and if they show up again consider spraying. This is the first time I've seen them in 25 years of gardening in this area. I wonder if they are spreading northward.

[ssi912]

if you dont want to use seven or bt, get something with spinosad as the active ingredient, it does a number on worms.

[kath]

Originally Posted by ssi912

if you dont want to use seven or bt, get something with spinosad as the active ingredient, it does a number on worms.

Great! Just picked up a bottle of that for the first time this year. Checked under leaves today and found aphids on 16 plants, but no army worms.