Caterpillars on tomatoes are a real scourge that gardeners and gardeners are familiar with firsthand. These pests not only spoil the leaves, but also bite into the flesh of ripening tomatoes, thereby causing damage to the future harvest. It’s better to start fighting caterpillars at the very beginning of bush infection. It is at this moment that the methods used will give the most effective results. What is the best way to control caterpillars? Using chemicals or folk remedies? Let's try to figure it out.
Main pests of caterpillars
The armyworm appears on tomato plantings in early summer.
This black, gray or brown butterfly can be observed at night or in the evening. There are many varieties of it, including more than 1000 genera. Particularly dangerous are cutworm caterpillars, which hatch from eggs laid by butterflies in early summer.
Female cutworms are very fertile and can lay up to 500 eggs.
The caterpillars that emerge from them actively consume vegetation, preferring the juicy pulp of fruits to leaves and shoots. Even young green shoots of tomatoes, which are considered poisonous to insects, are easily eaten by this type of pest.
The butterfly begins to lay eggs 4–5 days after emerging from the pupa.
The caterpillars hatch from the eggs in about a week, and after 20 days they are able to transform into an adult butterfly. To understand whether cutworm butterflies are present in the area, you can construct a simple trap from a container with a tapering neck
, to which add fermented jam, compote or warm kvass. If in the morning there are gray or brown butterflies in the trap, it means that some of the crops in the area have become infected. Action should be taken immediately
to destroy the spread of these insects, otherwise it will be possible to say goodbye to most of the harvest.
Folk remedies Followers organic farming Pesticides are not accepted. And many modern gardeners know very well how long it takes for chemicals to be removed from plant tissues.
- Therefore, at the initial stage, gentle folk remedies are often used. For example, one of the most famous is
infusion of garlic arrows . To prepare it you need to grind garlic arrows, cover them with water and leave to infuse in a cool place in a closed container for about a week. The resulting infusion is taken in the ratio 50–70 g for 1 bucket of water. Tomato bushes are sprayed with this solution. 1 time every 10 days.
Garlic arrows contain natural phytoncides that have powerful insecticidal properties.
- Another means of combating cutworm caterpillars is sagebrush. Wormwood grass is poured with hot boiling water at the rate 100 g per 1 l and leave to infuse for 2 days in a dark place. After which the broth is diluted in a ratio of 1:10 and treated (sprayed). The decoction works well on both adults and small caterpillars.
An infusion of crushed wormwood is used against codling moths and leaf-eating caterpillars.
- Burdock leaf. This plant is finely chopped and filled with water at room temperature. The ratio is half a bucket of leaves to a bucket of water. The solution is infused for 3 days, after which it is used for spraying. Treatment with wormwood can begin in mid-May. Frequency – once every 2 weeks.
Burdock infusion is effective only in direct contact with the caterpillars, so the treatment must be repeated periodically.
- Gardeners often use regular table salt . To do this, 400 grams of the substance are diluted in 5 liters of water and the leaves and shoots are treated with the resulting solution. To improve the adhesive properties of the solution, you can add 50 grams of grated laundry soap to it.
Chemicals
Even though chemicals take 20 to 30 days to clear from plant tissue cells, chemicals are still considered the most effective means of controlling insect pests.
Treatment of tomatoes with chemical compounds must be carried out taking into account the characteristics of a particular preparation.
If brown tomatoes are already visible on the bushes, then before processing it is better to collect them and leave them to ripen in another place. Green fruits can be processed. In this case, you must strictly follow the instructions and carry out processing only with protective equipment.
Most drugs are diluted in water and applied to the bushes by spraying. At the same time, we should not forget about the hazard classes assigned to them. The most dangerous are considered to be hazard class I products, and relatively safe – IV.
When choosing a drug, you should give preference to products with dual action: both butterflies and caterpillars.
Each gardener decides for himself what type of preparation to choose: biological or chemical. The first ones are safer, the second ones are more effective.
Prevention
Cutworms are insects that do not like plants with a strong, pungent aroma.
Therefore, one of the preventive measures is to plant crops such as bird cherry, mint, cornflowers, calendula, and thyme on the plot next to the tomatoes.
Planting plants next to tomatoes that repel pests with their smell is one of the most simple methods fighting caterpillars.
Plants are planted next to the ridges. Thanks to its pungent odor, it overpowers the aroma of tomatoes, to which cutworm butterflies flock. However, this technique does not work on young caterpillars, which can live in the root zone of plants.
Don’t forget about preventive measures that can significantly reduce the risk of voracious green guests appearing on your garden plot.
Algorithm
- Good in autumn dig up the soil to a depth of no less 25–30 cm. Remove and burn all weeds and remaining tomato tops. In case of infection, completely remove the top 15 cm layer of soil.
- Repeat the same procedure in the spring, before planting. . The soil must be loose and clean. But boiling water or a solution of potassium permanganate, which is poured onto the soil, will also help to “disinfect” the soil.
Digging up the garden in late autumn significantly reduces the number of pests overwintering in the depths of the soil.
When digging, the larvae that have settled in for the winter freeze already with the first frost, that’s why it is so important to carry out this procedure in the fall, after the last harvest. Timely prevention will preserve the harvest and greatly facilitate the care of tomatoes throughout the spring-summer season.
Eggplants, like tomatoes, prefer to grow in dry air and moderately moist soil, and they, like tomatoes, are susceptible to late blight, and therefore grow well together with tomatoes in the same bed. But unlike the tomato, which is phosphorus-loving, the eggplant is a nitrogen-loving plant, so when planting it in a hole, it is useful to add 1 tablespoon of azofoska or a similar fertilizer, but not a pure nitrogen mineral fertilizer (say, urea). The fact is that excess nitrogen before the first fruit sets in all nightshade crops causes the shedding of flowers and even young ovaries. Therefore, it is better to feed the eggplant with organic matter after it sets and slightly grows its first fruit.
Eggplant, being a dietary product, can itself go on a diet, so it does not really need feeding at all, provided that the soil is sufficiently fertile. At the beginning of intensive growth of the first fruit, it is better to fertilize organically and add ash.
Planting peppers in a greenhouse - with cucumbers or tomatoes
Pepper is very different from its relatives, although it is a nightshade crop. First of all, pepper is potassium-loving. This means that when planting pepper seedlings, you should add 1 tablespoon of any potassium fertilizer that does not contain chlorine into the hole. At worst, add 1 tablespoon with a small top of ash, or even better - 1 teaspoon of the powder fraction of the AVA fertilizer, then the pepper will do without any mineral fertilizing all summer.
With a lack of light, pepper seedlings do not grow (although they suffer from lack of light); the pepper does not care about late blight, but is susceptible to attack by aphids and slugs. And it absolutely cannot tolerate the slightest drying out of the top layer of soil. Since its compact root system does not grow either in depth or in breadth, its sucking hairs are located shallowly and easily dry out, and therefore die even when the top layer of soil dries out slightly.
To protect peppers from this, you must first mulch them with green organic matter, but there is a nuance here. The root collar of pepper is susceptible to rotting, and therefore it is not buried in the soil when transplanting. But if you mulch it with green grass, it will cause the neck to become warm. To prevent this from happening, before mulching it, sprinkle dry sand around the base of the stem so that the mulch does not come into contact with the bottom of the stem.
If you plant pepper seedlings on hydrogel, and also mulch the soil under it with green organic matter, then you will water it once every 3-4 weeks, especially if you grow peppers together with tomatoes (by the way, in this case, aphids will not attack them ). However, he prefers cucumbers - primarily because he tolerates moist air well and likes moist soil. Since green mulch will conserve soil moisture, and watering the cucumbers from time to time will also get under the peppers, this will not harm them either.
Growing peppers in a greenhouse: how to get rid of aphids
There is one “but”: when planting peppers together with cucumbers, it can be attacked by aphids, especially at the end of summer. If you have the “Healthy Garden” drug, then it’s easy to fight it. Shake 6-8 grains of “Healthy Garden” in 100 ml of water until completely dissolved and add another 900 ml to make 1 liter of solution. Spray pepper (or any other crop if it is attacked by aphids) in the evening, and that’s it. The aphids will disappear in a day and will not appear again, at least in the next 4-5 weeks.
There is another biological product - “Fitoverm” (or “Iskra-bio”), after spraying the leaves with it, after two hours any sucking and chewing insect stops feeding and dies of hunger after a couple of days. Plants absorb this drug and, functioning in cell sap, it defends against almost all sucking and gnawing pests, except slugs and snails, for three weeks. After using this drug, all sprayed vegetables or herbs can be eaten after 48 hours.
How to deal with slugs when planting peppers in a greenhouse
Slugs, which eat newly sprouted cucumbers on the vine, but do not touch the real leaves (because of the hairs), do not eat the leaves of eggplants and tomatoes, but are very fond of peppers, eating large holes in the leaves. How to be?
If you have edged beds, then the problem can be solved. It is necessary to lay a tunnel made of one wave of wave slate along the edges of the bed. At noon, snails and slugs will gather under it, you will turn the tunnel over and crush the discovered slugs. Leave them in place and turn the tunnel over again.
The next day you will find a whole bunch of them there, because the slugs will come to eat the remains of their relatives, instead of chewing the leaves of your plants. Do this for about a week, and you will completely free the bed from unwanted elements.
If you have not yet fenced the beds, then use flat slate for this. I recommend placing the rough side of the slate fence facing outward, then slugs and snails, afraid for their tender belly, will not climb into your garden bed from the outside.
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Peppers and eggplants in the greenhouse - along with cucumbers and tomatoes. Tomatoes in a greenhouse: when to plant seedlings, watering, fertilizing. What to do with stepchildren. Usually they are alternated with cucumbers, that is, cucumbers are grown one season, tomatoes the second.
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The cutworm butterfly is a polyphagous pest; there are about 100 species. Appearing in suburban areas and damaging plants, they cause a lot of trouble for gardeners.
There are various methods and techniques for controlling pests (larvae, caterpillars and cutworms). Having spent a lot of time and effort on growing seedlings and then it is very annoying to find holes in tomatoes.
Who hurts and how to deal with it? And adult cutworms do this by making huge holes in the tomatoes and eating away the pulp from the inside.
What does it look like
Externally, the cutworm is a rather inconspicuous butterfly that bears a slight resemblance to a moth. She lays eggs on back side leaf, for this reason it is very difficult to notice newly hatched larvae.
Caterpillars are born within 3 days. The color depends on the species, they are gray-green, green or dark brown with wavy lines on the sides of the body and light stripes. The body is covered with hairs. Over the next 22 days, development into an adult occurs.
Varieties
There are a large number of varieties of cutworms, the most famous of them are:
- Cabbage cutworm, which damages Shrovetide, fruit, leguminous and vegetable crops.
- A garden cutworm that attacks cabbage, rutabaga, tomatoes, and legumes.
- which damages field cereal plants.
- Pine armyworm. It harms coniferous plants.
- The gamma armyworm breeds where flax, potatoes, beets, corn and legumes are grown.
How to deal with pests in the garden? Caterpillar on tomatoes, caterpillars on tomatoes in a greenhouse
To combat the cutworm, all sorts of methods are used, which depend on its condition: larva, caterpillar, butterfly.
In order to fight cutworms, it is necessary to hang containers with the smell of pheromones, molasses or fermented kvass at a meter height.
To combat caterpillars and larvae you need:
- In the last month of autumn, dig up all the soil, as they overwinter in the soil. As a result, a significant proportion of pests will die. At the beginning of the new season, it is also recommended to dig up the soil in order to reduce the number of overwintered insects.
- Collect larvae by hand.
- Carefully destroy flowering weeds, since cutworms feed on nectar, and its lack leads to weakening of the individual.
- Maintain alternating plantings different cultures plants.
- It is necessary to remove weeds, as they serve as the initial food supply.
- Spray with insecticides one month before harvesting.
In the spring, use “Decis”, “Karate”, “Fury”; and in the summer season “Fufanon”, “Zolon”, “Danadim”. Apply them according to the instructions, carry out no more than 2 treatments per year. Spray with biological products, for example, Agrovertin, Actofit, Fitoverm.
Fighting caterpillars: general rules
Caterpillars on tomatoes in a greenhouse: how to deal with them? To combat it, it is necessary to apply an integrated approach, which contains the following measures:
- In the spring, constantly destroy weeds. This will help reduce the number of larvae and butterflies.
- Inspect greenhouses regularly, especially during the flowering period.
- Spray with chemicals “Iskra”, “Leptotsid”. Repeat spraying after a week, since the caterpillars do not all appear at once. Then only biological substances can be used, because the period of ripening and harvesting does not tolerate chemicals. Repeat treatment 2-3 times.
- Do not allow the caterpillar to form to large sizes.
- In the autumn, it is necessary to destroy all remnants of plants that have been damaged by the caterpillar and dig up the bed.
- During the summer season, it is recommended to loosen the soil from time to time.
Folk remedies
If caterpillars appear on tomatoes in a greenhouse, how to fight it using folk remedies? If you notice late that there are caterpillars in the tomatoes, then you can no longer use chemicals.
- From herbs. To prepare the infusion, you will need 10 liters of hot water, to which you need to add 400 g of celandine, tobacco, wormwood and 200 g of garlic. After a day, add 40 grams of soap.
- From wormwood. Add 1 kg of wormwood to 3 liters of water, then boil for 15 minutes. Treat the plants twice, then take a week break and you can repeat the procedure.
- From burdocks. Cut half a bucket of burdock leaves, then add water and leave for 3 days.
You can spray tomatoes with saline solution directly on the plant.
Caterpillars on tomatoes in a greenhouse: how to deal with cutworms?
The following products are used to treat tomatoes against pests.
- Mix lime, wood ash and tobacco powder thoroughly in equal proportions and pollinate the affected plants.
- Pour 2 cups of ash into a container with cold water and pour 2 small spoons liquid soap. Spray the plants with the resulting solution.
- Treating plants with a solution of potassium permanganate is very beneficial, firstly, it helps in counteracting armyworms, secondly, it is a fertilizer, and thirdly, it is a means that disinfects and kills bacteria and viruses. To treat seedlings, you need to pour a glass of a saturated solution of potassium permanganate into a bucket filled with water and mix everything thoroughly.
- Dilute 5 g of potassium and 10 g of superphosphate in a bucket of water and leave for 24 hours. Apply several times with an interval of 8 days, up to 3 times per season. In addition, this solution can help against aphids.
- Add 400 grams of laundry soap to 1 liter of hot water, then carefully pour in 800 ml of kerosene and add 9 liters of water. Mix everything and use immediately for processing.
Caterpillars on tomatoes in a greenhouse: how to deal with them using the advice of experienced summer residents? Baits for caterpillars and cutworms are made from sweet drinks, syrups, kvass, beer, and juices that can ferment. Place the bait in small jars. It is necessary to remove caterpillars that have fallen for the bait.
To repel butterflies, eggshells are used, which are placed between plants. Birds, especially tits and sparrows, love to feast on larvae and caterpillars, they will help reduce the number of pests. You can hang feeders for birds.
Plant cilantro and basil next to the tomatoes; cutworms cannot tolerate the aroma of these herbs, so they will fly around your plantings.
Biological methods
Caterpillars on tomatoes in a greenhouse: how to fight using biological methods? To destroy pests, you can use Trichogramma - these are small insects that lay eggs inside the eggs of cutworm butterflies. This method is used twice a season.
Significant benefits come from ichneumon insects, whose females, by puncture, introduce a toxin into the caterpillar, which stops digestion and leads to its death.
Caterpillars on tomatoes in a greenhouse; the reasons for their appearance directly depend on their timely detection. It is not always possible to determine the time of occurrence of pests in order to determine the timing of the start of treatment. If spraying is not done in a timely manner, the treatment will not give any result. It is possible to detect a massive insect infestation thanks to pheromone traps.
In conclusion, I would like to note that after reading the article, everyone will be able to answer the question: how to get rid of caterpillars on tomatoes in a greenhouse.
Tomato diseases are caused by viral and fungal pathogens Tomato is one of the most popular vegetables. It has gained recognition due to its bright taste, wide vitamin and mineral complex, and versatility of use. Therefore, in almost every area, today, you can find one or more varieties of this vegetable. But growing tomatoes in greenhouses is not so easy: the crop is susceptible to many diseases, and if detected, you should act immediately. What diseases and pests can cause significant harm to a tomato and how to save seedlings - read below!
- Tomato diseases in a polycarbonate greenhouse: causes
- Dangerous diseases of tomatoes in a greenhouse and their treatment
- Fighting tomato diseases in a greenhouse with improvised means
- Who eats tomatoes in the greenhouse
- Caterpillars on tomatoes in a greenhouse
- Common diseases of tomatoes in a greenhouse and their treatment (video)
It is better to prevent any disease than to cure it. To protect seedlings, you should know why certain diseases occur. Thus, most often diseases affect plants because the seeds for seedlings have not undergone proper pre-sowing treatment (treating, disinfection, hardening).
Before sowing, tomato seeds must be carefully selected and treated with solutions of potassium permanganate and hydrochloric acid.
Often, tomato diseases are associated with a violation of plant cultivation conditions: high humidity and temperature, which are an ideal environment for the development of pathogens, and proximity to potentially dangerous crops. With a lack of moisture, tomatoes drop all their flowers and small fruits, the stems acquire a yellowish tint and can curl.
Tomato diseases may be associated with violations of plant cultivation conditions
When planting in a polycarbonate greenhouse, it is important to choose hybrid tomato varieties: they have genes that are resistant to the most common greenhouse tomato diseases, tolerate lack of moisture well, and some are able to set even in extreme heat.
Tomatoes may suffer from planting in unsuitable soil. It should be remembered that tomatoes can be planted on the same soil where nightshades (potatoes, peppers) used to grow no earlier than after a few years. The best precursors for tomatoes will be perennial grasses, annual wheat, and legumes. In addition, the development of gray rot can be caused by acidic soils in the greenhouse.
Protecting seedlings from damage by fungal and viral diseases includes replacing the soil in the greenhouse and tilling the soil.
Tomatoes also get sick due to improper or excessive fertilization: an abundance of fertilizer in the soil can lead to plant leaves curling into a tube. In addition, plants can begin to “fatten”: direct all nutrients to the thickening and development of the stem, the growth of shoots, rather than fruits. A lack of nutrients in the soil (for example, potassium) can lead to plants producing unpalatable fruits.
Dangerous diseases of tomatoes in a greenhouse and their treatment
What to do if the tomatoes, despite all the precautions, get sick? First, you should study the symptoms and determine the type of disease. Next, begin immediate resuscitation of the seedlings: many diseases can be successfully cured with initial stage without significant losses.
If the first symptoms of a plant disease appear, you must take immediate action.
The following common diseases of tomatoes in protected soil are identified:
- Fusarium or fusarium wilt. The disease affects the fruits, stems and leaves, and even flowers of tomatoes, and can completely destroy all seedlings in just 2-4 days. To treat fusarium, fungicides should be used and affected plants should be removed.
- Late blight. The disease affects green fruits, leaves and stems. Late blight is treated with an aqueous solution of calcium chloride (1%), Bordeaux mixture.
- Anthraciasis. When the disease occurs, watery spots form on the fruits, which darken over time. Vegetables become bitter and lose their attractive appearance. Treatment involves removing affected plants and using fungicides against tomato blight.
Cladosporiosis, mold, rot are treated using a whole complex of phytosanitary, agrotechnical and chemical methods: compliance with crop rotation, collection and destruction of affected plants, maintaining optimal levels of humidity and temperature (sudden changes in temperature during the day and night should be avoided, increasing air humidity by more than 70%), by spraying plants with the same fungicides used against late blight.
Fighting tomato diseases in a greenhouse with improvised means
The fight against tomato diseases is possible not only with the help of chemical compositions: in the initial stages of diseases good result give you improvised means.
So, most often, gardeners resort to treating tomatoes with:
- Garlic tincture. This remedy helps fight fusarium. Prepare the solution as follows: 100 grams of the plant are crushed and poured with a bucket of water, left for 24 hours, after which a gram of potassium salt of permanganic acid is added to the tincture.
- Skim milk and urea. This product is used to treat plants infected with the tobacco mosaic virus. To prepare the composition, milk is diluted with water 1:10, after which a teaspoon of urea is added to the solution. Sick bushes are watered with the solution once a day.
You can fight tomato diseases using folk remedies
Gardeners in the southern regions may encounter problems such as overheating of plants in the summer. With increased temperature conditions(35-40°C) tomato pollen becomes sterile, and leaves, flowers, ovaries and buds fall off, and the fruits disappear (white, burnt spots, cracks appear on them).
You can revive tomatoes that have “burnt” by adjusting the temperature in the greenhouse and saturating the air in the greenhouse with carbon dioxide. This can be done using dry ice (10-20 grams per cubic meter), a container half filled with fermenting manure and water.
Who eats tomatoes in the greenhouse
The quality and quantity of the tomato harvest is also affected by pests, which often remain overwintering in greenhouses. If the tomatoes in the greenhouse begin to wither, and holes appear in the fruits that are rotting, then pests have entered the greenhouse.
Whitefly and mole cricket are dangerous pests that eat tomatoes.
The most common, dangerous pests that eat tomatoes:
- Whitefly. The white midge is dangerous due to its high population. The pest can be controlled using chemicals, smoke and sulfur bombs, and planting umbelliferous plants that attract insects that eat whiteflies.
- Medvedka eats mainly tomato roots and the lower part of the stem. The insect is hatched chemical treatments, the smell of kerosene and the bite, the planting of chrysanthemums in the greenhouse.
On the outside, the fruit is usually nibbled by a snail or slug. You can fight them with the help of the drug “Slug Eater”. Tomatoes are often eaten by a caterpillar, whose population dies with the onset of cold weather (autumn period). However, the pest can affect fruit quality and yield.
Caterpillars on tomatoes in a greenhouse
The cutworm caterpillar is a dangerous, voracious pest of tomatoes. The development of the insect coincides with the fruiting period of tomatoes. The presence of a pest in a greenhouse can be determined by perforated fruits.
Cutworm caterpillars eat tomato fruits, which can lead to rotting of the vegetables.
Tomatoes with holes indicate that there is a cutworm caterpillar in the greenhouse.
They fight the armyworm using such means as “Citkor”, “Leptocyte”. They are applied before the plants set, in early June. Afterwards, the use of chemicals is not recommended. At the same time, damaged plants need to be mandatory clean up and burn to destroy insect pupae.
To prevent the appearance of cutworms, you should always remove plant debris from the greenhouse after harvesting (this will deprive the cutworm of food and stop its reproduction), and treat the soil.
Common diseases of tomatoes in a greenhouse and their treatment (video)
Growing tomatoes is enough difficult process, which involves not only organizing the most optimal conditions for plants in the greenhouse and carefully caring for tomato bushes, but also, if something happens, treating seedlings from viral and fungal diseases and pests. Today there are many diseases that can destroy entire seedlings in a matter of days. Knowing how this or that disease differs, what measures should be taken to treat tomatoes, you can save the harvest, saving your energy and time for planting new plants!
Scoops
As they develop, noctuids go through three stages:
- larvae;
- caterpillars;
- pupae;
- butterflies.
Important! The greatest damage to tomatoes is caused by cutworms at the caterpillar stage, when they eat the fruits. The tomatoes in which they have settled are unsuitable for food.
Appearance the scoop is this:
- The eggs of these insects are small, up to 0.5 mm. Their lower part is flat, and their upper part is slightly elongated. Cutworms lay eggs on the undersides of leaves, making the clutch difficult to detect. Fertility is high: only one butterfly can lay up to 500 eggs during the season. During the summer, at least two generations usually change. The third generation goes into the soil for the winter. Eggs ripen very quickly - it takes from 2 to 10 days, and in warm weather the process occurs faster.
- Caterpillars come in different colors, usually the color is not too bright: green, gray, yellow, and brown are found. The body of the caterpillars is naked, with sparse bristles. Three light stripes run along the body. It is at the second stage of development that cutworms cause the greatest harm to tomatoes. They actively feed on the leaves and stems of plants, move on to flowers, and then take on juicy fruits, gnawing holes in them and settling inside. Noctuid caterpillars live for about 20 days, after which they move to the next stage.
- The cutworm pupa does not harm plants. The insect is inactive at this stage of development. It is sealed for subsequent transformation into a closed pupa. The color is usually dark brown. The butterfly usually goes through the pupal stage in the upper layer of soil, going deeper to 10-15 cm.
- The adult butterfly is moth-like with a faded brown-gray coloration; there are patterns on the wings, the wingspan reaches 2.5-4.5 cm. Adults do not harm crops, since their main food is nectar. However, they lay eggs en masse, giving birth to new generations. An adult moth butterfly can live from 20 to 40 days, constantly laying eggs.
Cutworms are nocturnal insects. During the day they hide in the top layer of soil, and at nightfall they come out and attack plants. 
Whiteflies
These are very tiny white moths that resemble midges. Their size does not exceed 3 mm (and sometimes in the range of 1.2-1.8 mm). The insect's abdomen is yellowish in color, and its small wings are covered with whitish pollen. Adults live on both the outer and inner sides of leaves. They are easy to detect if you shake the plant. Disturbed, they fly up in a dense white swarm.
Whiteflies are most dangerous at the larval stage. They are inactive, completely crumbled in size, and are located on the leaves of plants on the underside. Pale in color, inconspicuous, half transparent. At first, the larvae are able to move, which is why they are also called “vagrants.” They migrate between stems and leaves, choosing the most juicy and nutritious place.
Important! In addition to absorbing plant juices and attracting sooty fungi, whiteflies are also dangerous because they cause epidemics of bacterial infections, which they carry.
Fungi, once on the nutritious soil left by whiteflies, multiply and grow. In their habitats, a black coating forms on the leaves, which prevents sunlight from reaching the leaves. This becomes an obstacle to the photosynthesis process. 
As you know, photosynthesis is the basis of plant life. When this opportunity is limited, garden crops, already weakened by the loss of juices due to the larvae, gradually die: the leaves turn yellow and fall off, the processes of growth and development stop, and the harvest becomes very meager. Gradually, the black coating spreads to the fruits, covering them on the outside, and inside they acquire White color, become inedible.
Whiteflies prefer to live in closed, warm and humid environments. The greenhouse is ideal for them. Open ground is avoided, since cold temperatures, winds and predators that feed on them are dangerous for them there. But they can’t stand the cold. If the temperature drops below +10°C, the whiteflies die. But butterflies tolerate frost well and overwinter quietly in the top layer of soil.
Signs of appearance
The appearance of caterpillars on tomato bushes significantly affects their well-being, so it is quite easy to spot pests based on the following signs:
- leaves dry, curl and fall off;
- stems and foliage are damaged and holes appear on them;
- plants look weakened;
- growth slowdown;
- delay in the appearance and ripening of fruits;
- poor fruiting;
- deep black holes in fruits;
- the foliage becomes covered with a black coating;
- when shaking the bush, a swarm of white “midges” rises into the air;
- On the reverse side of the leaves, clutches of eggs and larvae are found.
Did you know? Cutworms have natural enemies in nature. Among these insects are Trichogramma, tahina fly and ichneumon fly.
Why do they appear
There are not many reasons why pests appear on tomatoes. Butterflies look for favorable places to live in a warm and protected greenhouse, where they remain.
Several reasons for the appearance of caterpillars in a greenhouse:
- Lack of preventive measures when arranging a new greenhouse. Cutworm and whitefly eggs overwinter in the soil. If the greenhouse is installed in an infested area, then with the onset of warm weather, pests can be expected to appear on greenhouse plants.
- They penetrate through vents, windows and doorways. Butterflies can simply fly into the greenhouse and stay there, giving life to new generations.
- Infected new plants. Whitefly larvae can also take root on plants recently purchased at the store. It can be very difficult, and sometimes even impossible, to notice them.
How to treat and how to get rid of caterpillars on tomatoes in a greenhouse
All methods of fighting caterpillars are divided into two large groups:
- Chemicals- you will need insecticides from the manufacturer;
- Folk remedies, implying the use natural materials and manual collection of pests.
Each method has its pros and cons, and can be quite effective if applied correctly and at the right time, when the caterpillars are most susceptible to such influence.
Important! The use of chemicals during the harvest period is strictly prohibited. At this time, it is permissible to use only natural remedies, since fruits treated with insecticides are toxic and dangerous to humans.
Chemicals
There are many different chemicals on the market that are effective in controlling pests such as cutworm caterpillars and whiteflies.
The most effective are considered:
The use of the above remedies is most effective if the caterpillars have just appeared. It is often necessary to carry out such treatment several times, because several generations of pests usually develop in one area. The first re-treatment is carried out a week after the initial one. In the future, you can carry out these events 2-3 more times with an interval of one week.
Did you know? The waxy substance that covers the whitefly larvae before transforming into a butterfly is such a reliable protection that it completely protects the larvae from any poisons.
Traditional methods
If the use of chemical poison is impossible, then use folk natural remedies.
Among them are especially distinguished:
In addition to the use of various means that are used to treat tomato bushes when infested by caterpillars, mechanical action must also be included in the arsenal of the fight (only in this case the effect will be as effective as possible).
Fighting caterpillars is always more difficult than preventing their appearance.
To protect your greenhouse beds from harmful insects, preventative procedures are necessary:
- Before building a greenhouse, treat the top layer of soil in the area where you plan to build a greenhouse. Loosen, heat and disinfect.
- Before the start of the growing season, equip all window and door openings of the greenhouse with mosquito nets with very small holes.
- Quarantine new plants that you transplant into the greenhouse. To do this, keep such a plant separately from all others for several weeks. During this time, whitefly larvae, if they were on leaves or stems, will grow, turn into butterflies and become noticeable.
Caterpillars on tomatoes in a greenhouse harm the plants, which negatively affects the yield. Therefore, it is necessary to combat pests in advance, at the first signs of appearance or when the first individuals are detected. The best protection against caterpillars is prevention. Preventative measures are always easier to implement than treatment.
