Tomato moth caterpillar

[Basher]

I thought I would just share something I noticed this year.

My tomato plants are in 3' by 1' planters to which I bolted an adjustable simple frame to attach bamboo canes and support the vines. The frame is made from green treated wood.

As the vines have grown they have tended to lean directly onto this wooden frame in places. I usually struggle very much to find the caterpillars (looking above the droppings for ages to spot them as they blend in so well). But I've found this year, the caterpillars seem to spend their 'inactive' days on and under the wooden frame rather than the on the vines, toms or canes.

When I get in the greenhouse I just look at the frame and the beasties are obvious. I've had hardly any damage and probably disposed of more than a dozen caterpillars.

Bit like a beer trap for slugs perhaps.

[muddled]

Can you show us a picture?
My toms have ravaged by caterpillars this year and as you say, they are so hard to spot. Hours of searching have so far yielded a grand total of three......and they were't big enough to have caused the amount of damage I've got!

[Bill HH]

I suffer from these things badly. So far my only cure has been constant vigilance and as the season progresses removing lots of foliage. Mine prefer to lie along the spine of leaves in the day where they are very hard to spot. As has been said looking for the bowel movements is a sure sign one is somewhere above it.As the mother moth is nocturnal I close my gh at night and open it early morning, this seems to have helped.4 years ago I had hundreds of them and I asked my local garden centre "expert" what they were, he said "Tomatoes don't get caterpillars".I felt like bringing a box of them and chucking them on his plants.

[Basher]

Here are a couple of pics.



I also removed quite a bit of foliage. The caterpillars seem to like to rest under the horizontal section.

[rosiepumpkin]

I found them in the cracks of the metal of my greenhouse, in the soil, along the backs of plant labels, inside pots, along the plant supports, around the water butt, my kneeler, and in caterpillar traps (aka cut and drop, rather than cut and remove tidily).

[Basher]

Sounds like I've had it easy compared to many.

[Jungle Jane]

Do you think they've gone there to pupate or form the chrysalis? They like wood & there would be enough space for them to spread their wings. It made me think because i've got these ladybirds in my garden,i usually see them out around my raised bed,but for about 5 or 6 days they've been stuck in that position of the photo,haven't moved at all (at first i thought they were scared of flying into the amount of spider webs right by them,so i cleared the webs for their safety,moved the spiders to my plum tree nearby,then googled they hibernate in September) Maybe they'l move around when its warmer or they might stay there?