more-tomato-problems
Colin7
Posts: 38
Last year I lost my whole greenhouse tomato crop to late blight. This year we are doing great until............little holes, about 1mm Dia are being bored into the unripened tomatos.
I can't catch or trace a culprit. Any ideas on what it could be please.
0
Posts
It sounds like it could be tomato moth - though the holes are very small. The caterpillars (green or brown) tunnel into the fruit - open a fruit and see if you can see one.
Sounds right. The evidence will be inside the tom if so.
Yes Daintiness. You were right. I didn't know such things existed. On examination I found a number of caterpillers on the lower leaves. They match those described on the internet. Now, what the devil do I do about them. Are you getting bored with my constant problems Italophile..LOL
I have always found them outside the fruit. Examine the plants carefully and you will see evidence of their droppings. You may only find one caterpillar; it will be very well camoflaged and quite large.
Squidge it/them or throw it out for the birds.
Colin, you can hunt them down, checking carefully on both sides of the leaves and all around the stems and branches. At night, with a torch, is best.
Or, if you want to, you can spray against them with any of the Bacillus thuringiensis-based products. DiPel is probably the best known. It's organic, a bacteria extracted from soil, and harmless to everything except caterpillars. It's not a contact spray so you don't need to hit the critters to wipe them out.