 Garden
Pests
Tomato Hornworm Caterpillar
Description of Insect
- Sphinx Moth adults,
- bright green caterpillars with horned heads white stripes,
- over winters hard shell ,
- brown pupae
- greenish yellow egg mass layer underside of leaves
Description of Damage:
caterpillar feed on leaves leaving holes
Attacks: Tomatoes, eggplant, pepper, potato
Organic Controls:
- Floating cover
- Handpicking caterpillars (if small white cocoons on caterpillars, they are being
parasited by braconid wasp.
- destroy infested plants
- Plant resistant varieties
- crop rotation
- reduce food supply by controlling weeds
Safe Botanicals:
- Cayenne Pepper (Tabasco sauce)
- Garlic
- Pyrethrium
- Dr. Bronners Peppermint soap
- Garden Grade DE
- BT/Berliner-Kurstaki,
- Wettable Bt Powder
- A sample formula for spraying: in a guart water add: 5 drops Tabasco
sauce 1 drop Dr.
Bronners peppermint soap or any natural soap, 2 drops garlic oil or crushed or
bought, spray on leaves and directly on bug. test for strength to avoid damage
to plants.
Pyrethrium can be dusted around the plants. avoid beneficials be pest specific
- A good dust mixture is: 1 part Pyrethrium 1 part Garden Grade DE 1 part alfalfa meal 1/8
part cayenne pepper dust around plants and under leaves, don't water for 24 hrs avoid
beneficials, be pest specific
- A NOTE ABOUT SOAP: Do not use soaps that are
chemically made or that have strange chemical additives or preservatives. Instead use only
natural soap, either citrus or peppermint based or best but try herbal soaps. Use only a
very small amount of soap and use only when necessary. for more information on soap /go
soap
Natural Predators
- Predatory Nematodes
- Bio-neem Nematodes
- Hb for larvae
- Parasitic wasps and flies
- Tachinid Fly
- Lacewings
- Trichogramma wasps
- Spined solider bug
- Lady beetles
Andy Lopez
The Invisible Gardener
|
dont panic its organic garden pests
|
