What the heck are these?

[TJS]

These worms are eating the tomato leaves. I don't think they are pinworms b/c the damage from pinworms seem to mine the leaves from what I read. Any ideas?
Thanks, tim

[shelleybean]

Yuk! Whatever they are, and I don't know, some Dipel Dust should take care of that problem in a hurry.

[TJS]

Hi Michelle,
I have sprayed with Bt which is the same thing I think. Will see how it goes,Thanks, Tim

[shelleybean]

Yep, same thing. Bt should work on any worms.

[Tomatovator]

What is Bt? I'm not familiar with this one.

[Sherry_AK]

Bacillus Thuriengensis -- it's a naturally-occurring bacteria. I use it nearly every year to kill the catepillars that munch delphinium leaves. It is very safe.

[carolyn137]

Just b'c I'm up at this hour and don't want to be I'll say a bit more about BT.

Yes, it's the bacterium mentioned but the BT concentrates are crystals that the bacterium makes and not the live vegetative forms of the bacterium.

Those xstals insert themselves into the lining of the stomach of, in this case the worm, allowing a hole to be produced and that leads to the stomach blowing up, as it were.

There are several differeent strains of BT and thus several different preps that have different target populations, so it's important to buy the one for worms and not the one for blackflies, if you get my drift.

And perfectly safe, as has been said.

If you Google BT you'll see the proper names of all the various strains of BT and what their target populations are. Here in upstate NY we have a terrible problem with blackflies in late spring/early summer and various municipalities hire planes to spray their respective areas.

In Africa certain BT's have been very effective in cutting back on diseases such as River Blindness and I forget right now what the insect vector is that's sensitive to one of the BT preps.

[amideutch]

http://www.planetnatural.com/site/ba...ingiensis.html

[TJS]

These critters have not been affected yet.
Tim

[bcday]

Bt does not kill the caterpillars immediately, so you might not see any effect this soon. It only works if they eat enough of it, and it might be several days or a week before you see any results.

[feldon30]

Wouldn't soapy water get rid of them in the interim?

[amideutch]

TJS, check out this link. It may help. Ami
http://www.ghorganics.com/page9.html#Aphids

[COgarden]

Looked like earwig damage until I saw the second photo! EEEWWWW! Are they all over or just on the one plant?

Kurt

[TJS]

COgarden, they are on only one plant and the plant is huge so I'm not terribly worried, now. I sprayed BT and picked off affected leaves yesterday. I would love to know what they are though.
Ami, thanks for the link but nothing there looks to be them.
feldon, I will try soap if I see more of them,
Thanks, Tim

[feldon30]

Looks like your bog standard fruitworms to me. I lost a fair amount of foliage and several Cherokee Purple fruits to them this spring. I will not fail to spray with BT next year.