tomato disaster...help identify

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by b54red

I hate to be the lone voice against BT which I use all the time. The type caterpillar that is hitting us right now is rarely stopped completely by BT no matter how often it is applied. These little buggers grow fast and feed voraciously and during a spell of rainy days can nearly destroy the foliage on your tomatoes and even your bell peppers. I myself was using BT and removing leaves where the bottom side was covered with tiny worms up until a few days ago when they just became an overwhelming problem so I used liquid Sevin and sprayed as much of the undersides of the leaves as possible and hit every one of my tomato plants except one lone volunteer. In two days they had shredded a third of the leaves of that one plant which I dusted with Sevin yesterday. The Sevin totally knocked them out and at least until the next hard rain I won't have to worry with them. They are not usually too much of a problem later in the season but right now with frequent rains they can be really destructive. In just a few days they go from tiny little things to big caterpillars that will also ruin your fruits.

BT works great on most caterpillars but a few years ago I was applying it nearly every day in either liquid or Dipel dust when these caterpillars were really bad and found that eventually I had to resort to the Sevin to stop them. It seemed that the BT slowed them down some but not enough to stop the destruction of my leaf cover protecting my tomatoes from sun damage.

Bill

Was your BT fresh? If it has been on the shelf for more than a year, usually it is nearly dead. Could it be that it was a bit old?

[b54red]

Originally Posted by ginger2778

Was your BT fresh? If it has been on the shelf for more than a year, usually it is nearly dead. Could it be that it was a bit old?

No it was fresh because I buy new every season fall and spring and working great on my cabbage worms, army worms, etc. but it just wasn't cutting it on those type tomato worms. I had a friend who had the same problem and he also had to resort to Sevin. I don't particularly like to use it but this early in the season and for certain pests it is just too effective to ignore. It is about the only thing that will stop fruit worms on cucumbers and squash when they get bad and the only thing I have found that will work on those weird tomato vine borers although I have only had to deal with them twice in forty years. I have a little bulb duster that I keep full of Sevin dust during squash season and dust the lower stem only on my squash plants after every rain or heavy watering. This way it doesn't bother my growing honey bee population and yet is the only way I can grow squash more than a few weeks without squash vine borers ruining them. Since I have been using this little trick I have been able to grow squash until I am totally sick of them and they are too large to even manage anymore.

Bill

[b54red]

Got a call from a friend of mine who is totally an organic gardener who was having difficulty with these worms. He had been picking the infested leaves up til today when they started eating his fruit and he couldn't keep up with them. He was desperate and finally went and got some Sevin and took care of the problem even though it was against his beliefs he knew he couldn't contain the damage and he was losing too many tomatoes too fast. They can get really bad some years and you are left with the choice of having almost no production or going to the tried and true. I usually don't have to resort to Sevin most years but about every three years the infestation is just too much for the milder methods to stop them.

Bill