tobacco horn worms

[bsfman]

Checked my tomatos this morning and lo and behold, the damn tobacco hornworms have defoliated the top half of my entire tomato bed! I picked 16 of the bastards off my plants. Some were nearly the size of my index finger. (They obviously thrive on aquaponic tomatos!) I even found one that was eating a huge hole in a green tomato.

I didn't see any evidence of eggs from parasitic wasps on them, so I don't guess wasps have discovered the horn worms yet. Short of picking them off by hand, anybody have suggestions for horn worm control? Is there a source for parasitic wasps that I could introduce? Any other organic type treatments?

Thanks for any advice!

[keith_r]

bt should do the trick

[bsfman]

bt should do the trick

Not familiar with it. What's bt Keith?

[commander]

I don't have much of a solution for you other than pick them off on a regular basis. But it always does amaze me how fast these things can appear apparently full grown. You can check plants in the morning and find them all over your plants by afternoon. I think they can teleport or something.

[Bioritize]

He May be talking of BT-K, its a bacteria pesticide. Or you could try pure neem or some praying mantis's for longer term control.

[keith_r]

bt is bacillus thuringiensis, totally fish safe, ladybug safe, and bee safe.. you can even feed the dying hornworms/grubs to your fish
neem oil is good on dirt plants but in AP, you have to be very careful with any sprays that contain oils or soaps, since they are really bad for the fish..
if you use neem oil, try to avoid getting any on the media, you might want to stop pumping water into the bed you spray, at least overnight

[foodchain]

Three generations of my family have fought with these. Only way any of us found to deal with them is manualy picking them off. Be careful, the ones here bark and bite.