One thing I found out by accident a few years ago, is that installing a bug light in the area of your garden will eliminate the moths and stop your problems. What works for us is to set a bug light and set from dusk till dawn when you first start planting your tomatoes or peppers. Only one time I had a minor issue was when I waited to late setting up the light (two months after planting) found a few on the plants. Keep the light working thru your growing season. Now wait till dark, grab your favorite drink and watch the spark show. Happy gardening. this definitely has made our garden pest free. 😊
Great Idea! We found something similar by accident, we had a solar light by our monster tomato grow that comes on at dark and off at dusk and we very seldom have any on them but in our main garden where it is dark we have to pick them off regularly.
Those UV lights work really good ! In the 16 years we lived here and grew a garden we only had a bad year once with hornworms and those lights worked great . Thanks for sharing !
I have tried basil for many years and it doesn't seem to work in our area. I am trying something new this year, if it works I will post a video detailing what I am trying. Thanks for the comment.
I also have basil plants all over my garden, but mostly with the pepper plants which do seem to be unaffected. But each tomato plant has at least one or two basil plants next to them and I still got the hornworms. Just ordered a UV flashlight for some night hunting.
I generally don't have any problems with pepper plants but our tomatoes get attacked every year. I have used every type of basil I can find and it still doesn't work for me. Thanks for the comment.
Prevention is the key. Always have a couple badminton rackets in your garden. Whenever you see large brown moths, smack them. Stay vigilant and this will minimize the infestation. Also watch for the white cabbage moth. I pretty much kill every moth I see in my garden and I rarely have hornworm or cabbage larvae issues.
Thank you for your info with using the UV light and sharing the solar light you discovered accidentally Plus the post form a viewer for using a bug light my dad used when I was a child calling it a bug zapper
Yep, the demon worm. I pulled off a bunch from my plants. Seemed like they have died back the last week, but now I have just a brown worm/caterpillar that’s boring my tomatoes. Had to pull 8 nice green tomatoes today. Just made me sick.
We won't use BT because side effects caused by the introduction of Bt on the non-target organisms and the ecosystems, on the whole, are articulated infrequently. Because they are complex systems comprising hundreds of different species, ecosystems can be studied at different organization levels and food chain stages; namely, the microscopic level with all microbial communities, the level of small animals such as worms and insects, the level of large animals, mammals and birds, and the ecosystem overall
Interesting choice of words "pure". I haven't ever thought about the way we garden as being pure. We do our best not to introduce anything into our soil that is going to harm us or the environment.I guess pure is a proper adjective for regenerative gardening. Thanks for the comment and introducing a new thought process into our gardening.@@frankmorris4790
Thank you for your much needed vide . Very informative and helpful. Only thing is I can’t kill them. Time to get a chicken coop constructed, and nows the time.
LOL. It must be a Teresa thing because that's my name too and I can't kill them either. I did take them for a drive in the country and threw them in a ditch miles away! My luck, those appendages are all thumbs and they know how to hitchhike...
i had a terrible proble on my tomato plants wth them this year on my beautiful cherokee purple tomatoes devstated the plants t forst thought they were rbbits eating the plants
I am sorry to hear about your plants. Unfortunately they can destroy them almost overnight. Pick all the worms you can find off and your plants should recover.
If you plant basil next to the tomato plant it will lure the moth to lay eggs on the basil without any destruction. Supposedly the moth can detect the pungent smell of tomato plants but basil is even more pungent and fools them.
Hi I have tried using basil before. When I first heard about this method (back in the late 1980's) I tried it. It didn't work then and it doesn't work now. At least not for me. One year I planted 6 basil plants around 1 tomato plant and I still got tomato hornworms. I haven't found any herb or flower that keeps them off. I have tested many over the last 40 years.But I will keep trying different methods hopefully I will find one that works.
This did work for my peppers! I have 3 pepper plants in my garden, and the 2 without basil have been it by the horned worms, and the one with basil has not. All in the same raised bed, less than a couple feet of separation.
@@latischahuller In over 40 years of growing peppers I have never had a tomato hornworm on one. There is basil growing right next to the tomato plants in this video and as you can see there are plenty of hornworms on them. It must not bother the moths here in TN LOL. I have tested planting basil all around tomato plants and have never had consistent results. If I can't repeat an experiment without consistent results then I consider it a failure.
I use the black light, and I notice it points out all DEAD growth as well as the horn worm. That said, how bout, Bt, but shot directly into the bottom of the stalk? It works great on the Vine-Bore when done that way, and I was wondering if anyone has tried the method on tomatoe plants. Anyway. . .
Just pulled 3 of them off 1 plant and a brown tomtato moth caterpillar. I noticed my plant gettin tore up this mornin and found 4 caterpillars all together. Crazy
Great idea. If you only have a few tomato plants that would work great. Unfortunately we plant around 50 to 60 plants every year and it would take a lot of screen to cover them all. Great idea I will try this on a few plants this year and see how it works.
If u know any reptile or tarantula keeper's, they'd be happy to take them off ur hands. They pay $2/$4 per worm. I've seen them feeding them on plenty of youtube videos. Good luck 👍🏻 and thanks
I know a few people that grow extra tomato plants just to put hornworms on to feed them. They tell me that they are part of the ecosystem that way. This is very commendable. I tell them we feed ours to our chickens, so they are still part of the ecosystem by helping feed our chickens plus it provides more food for us because they are not destroying our tomatoes. Great comment, thanks for sharing.
After 2 years of home gardening, let me tell you - the absolute BEST way to avoid Army Worms, Hornworms, Blight, . . . go buy your tomatoes at the store! Good grief, they're everywhere! In cans - fresh . . . take a nap, and let it go!
LOL thats funny. I have been gardening for over 40 years and I have often thought why do I work so hard to grow my own vegetables? Then I taste them and suddenly my answer becomes perfectly clear.
Over 50 years ago when I was a sophomore in Buffalo for the first time after growing up working in the garden after school because we bought nothing at the market, I didn’t have a garden of any kind and I was so depressed all summer I swore there would never be another year in my life without something growing, even if it was a bucket. The next year, I grew tomatoes, eggplant and peppers in buckets on the deck. I made bread every couple of days so with those three veggies you can eat and well. There’s nothing better than a fresh tomato sandwich on homemade bread and til this day my favorite sandwich is eggplant parm on Italian bread. OMG! Some people eat to live. I personally live to eat!! And I feel like I’m getting away with something when I can take one teeny tiny seed and grow up to 50# of tomatoes. To each her own!🤗
