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Author:  prvw00 [ Fri Jun 26, 2009 9:52 am ]
Post subject:  tomatoe thieves

Help!!!

This year is one of the best years for tomatoes i've seen in several years as far as rain goes.
My problem is " I have something eating my tomatoes at night." It's not insects of any kind. Most of my tomatoes are bigger than fist size, but when they start turning ripe I find that something has eaten half of it. I know we have racoons, possums and skunks around here but, I have never had problems like this.. Any idea if any of the animals i mentioned would eat tomatoes. Any help would be appreciated,

Thanks
Paul VW

Author:  northwesterner [ Sat Jun 27, 2009 8:08 am ]
Post subject:  Re: tomatoe thieves

Don't rule out insects. Have you ever seen what a tomato hornworm can do to a fruit? Eat half of it and a bunch of the plant as well when you're not looking.

Image

In Howard's Texas Bug Book he talks about how these worms show up at night under a black light. If you can't convince them to leave with a modest application of BT, you might want to go out at night and see if you can spot them this way. In daylight they assume the exact color of the plant and can be there right in plain sight and as huge as your thumb and you still won't see them. It's like a puzzle, once you train your brain to look for that shape, then you'll start seeing them. I usually find them when they leave those little crystaline looking green black poops on the leaves and ground beneath them. Then you know to check out the plant over that debris.

Good luck. My tomatoes are also going gangbusters this year, but I have to get the water right. I'm getting mites on one plant because I think it stays too wet.

Author:  northwesterner [ Wed Jun 27, 2012 10:57 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: tomatoe thieves

It is the time of year to keep an eye out for the huge tobacco hornworms. They so easily look like a curled leaf that it is always a shock to realize these big bruisers were on the plant in front of you all along. :(

Author:  northwesterner [ Wed Jul 11, 2012 7:43 am ]
Post subject:  Re: tomatoe thieves

I spotted my first mid-sized tobacco hornworm this week. They look just like a rolled tomato leaf and match the plant in color identically so you have to kind of shift gears in your vision to see them where they are on the plant. (It's like one of those puzzles where if you focus just right you can see the wolf standing on a rock in what ordinarily looks like a geometric pattern).

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