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Tomato plant pest

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Eric Krewson:
Lots of us kind of folk grow gardens so I thought I would pass this tip along, I may have posted it previously, I can't remember.

This is to combat tomato horn worms.

The solution is easy, buy a UV black light flashlight (harbor freight sells them), go out after dark and shine this flashlight on your plants, every worm will glow like a green glow stick, you can find and pick them off easily, every one, I found some as small as one inch with my light.

I learned this method last year after having my plants ravaged by these worms for years, they are very hard to find in the daylight. I picked all of them off I could find in the daylight, I only found 5 worms. I went back with my light that night and found 13 more easily. The next night I found 5 or 6 and the next night 2 and none from them on, I got them all before they could do much damage.

I went out one night and actually flushed the moth that lays the eggs for these pests out of one of my tomato plants, that thing was as big as a sparrow, huge.

Harbor Freight was sold out of these lights so I got one from Amazon. These lights are made for people to use in hotels and motels to find "bodily fluids" that would indicate the room wasn't properly cleaned.

GlisGlis:
I'm fighting right now with much smaller green worms. The biggest little more than an inch long.
I was considering bacillus thuringiensis but I may try the CSI light to see if it works

Stoker:
Good advice. Thanks Eric.

White Falcon:
Sprinkle some Baking Soda around the base of the plant. Nothing on the plant it self.

Russ:
That's pretty cool Eric! Im actually doing research on that moth you have there. They are called Hawkmoths and are essential pollinators for plants here that require a long proboscis, specifically the Oenothera plants! They can be really annoying pests though as you found out  ;)

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