In the Garden with Pat Rubin

Bee garden writer Pat Rubin writes about everything that grows, from flowers and trees to vegetables and lawns. Pat volunteered for several years as a Placer County Master Gardener and has written about gardening for many national and regional publications. In addition to gardening, she spends time raising and showing miniature horses and miniature donkeys.

In the Garden will include news, events, advice and other gardening tidbits. Pat will also answer reader questions.

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July 5, 2007

Tomato fruitworms

A reader wrote to report her tomatoes were being overrun by fruitworms. They tumble out of the holes they make in the tomatoes, she wrote.

Also known as corn earworms and boll worms, they’re small, bristly looking, cream or greenish colored worms that feed inside tomatoes and corn, leaving a cavity filled with feces. They can eat their way through tomato after tomato.

According to a fact sheet on tomato fruitworms published by the University of California Statewide Integtrated pest Management Program, fruitworms are the larvae of "medium-sized moths with a wingspan of about 1 to 1.3 inches. They are pale tan to medium brown colored or sometimes have a slight greenish tinge. The front wings are variously marked and usually have an obscure dark spot in the center and a lighter band inside a dark band around the tip. The hind wings are drab white and have a dark gray band around their tip. A diffuse light spot is in the center of the dark band."

The larvae hatch from tiny eggs laid on the leaves. The moths lay their eggs on both the undersides and the tops of the leaves. The eggs are cream colored at first, and then turn a reddish brown.

Recommended control treatments include parasitic wasps and Bacillus thuringiensis. The UC factsheet includes many excellent photographs of the fruitworm moth and larvae.

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