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You can fight the cutworm on tomatoes using chemicals and folk remedies. But first of all, you need to study the varieties of the pest and its characteristics.
Types and description of scoop
The armyworm is a small gray butterfly with a wingspan of up to 4.5 cm. It is a pest for tomatoes because it lays eggs on their leaves, from which caterpillars hatch up to 3 cm in length. The color of the larvae is green, brown and pink. During their development to a full-fledged butterfly, the caterpillars actively eat tomato plates, stems and ripening fruits.
The armyworm is also dangerous because it reproduces in waves. Invasion of caterpillars occurs several times during the summer; if you do not fight them, you will not be able to harvest a good harvest.
The cutworm is represented by several common species. Some of them harm tomatoes mainly in open ground, while others appear more often in greenhouses.
Cotton bollworm on tomatoes
The bollworm (Helicoverpa armigera) is a butterfly with greyish-yellow wings edged with brown. In the center there is a mark resembling a sickle.
The caterpillars reach 4 cm in length, their color varies - black, white, brown or yellow-green. The cutworm actively develops on tomatoes at temperatures of 18-28 ° C, eating leaves and fruits.
The development cycle from egg to butterfly of the cotton bollworm takes about a month.
Scoop Gamma
The gamma armyworm (Phytometra gumma) is a pest widespread throughout Russia. It causes damage not only to tomatoes, but also to other cultivated plants. It has a gray or brown color with a purple tint; there is a characteristic silver marking on the front pair of wings. The caterpillars are green with white stripes on their backs.
Gamma armyworm produces up to four generations per season in southern regions
exclamation point
The screech owl (Agrotis exclamationis) is a butterfly that lives in the central part of Russia, the Far East and Siberia. It has a gray color with a yellow or brown tint. The caterpillars of this species are pale yellow or brownish-gray, up to 3.5 cm, with pimples on the body and a red head.
The tomato cutworm mainly gnaws the stems near the surface of the soil. If you do not fight the insect, you can lose some of the bushes, which will simply fall to the ground.
You can meet the exclamation scoop even in the polar regions
Winter
The fall armyworm (Agrotis segetum) is an insect that damages tomatoes throughout Russia, including in the north and Far East. It has a wingspan of up to 4.6 cm, the front ones are gray-brown in color.
Caterpillars of the winter armyworm are brownish, shiny, up to 5 cm in length. The pest gnaws leaves from spring to October, and in the fall it burrows into the ground to a depth of 25 cm.
The fall armyworm does not affect tomato fruits, but it is still necessary to combat it
Greenhouse
Under this name, a scoop of various species that settle in the greenhouse is combined. Most often, butterflies have a light color and dark spots on the wings. Their larvae are gray in color, with black stripes on the back. In the absence of control measures, the greenhouse cutworm feeds on the leaves and fruits of tomatoes.
The greenhouse cutworm can easily spread from tomatoes in a greenhouse to neighboring crops
Scoop Karadrina
The Karadrina cutworm (Spodoptera exigua) is a polyphagous pest of brown-gray color with a small wingspan of up to 2.4 cm. The round spot of the butterfly is distinctly reddish.
Karadrina armyworm breeds from May to October and produces up to three generations per season
Karadrina moth caterpillars are green or brown, up to 3 cm in length. The parasite feeds mainly on leaves, but in later stages it can also damage fruits. Karadrina moth larvae pupate after 2-3 weeks of development.
Reasons for appearance
The armyworm can appear on tomatoes in any area. But following agricultural practices and careful care of the bushes reduce the likelihood that the pest will multiply and cause noticeable damage to the plantings.
Neglecting the rules for growing tomatoes leads to the cutworm attacking the vegetable crop in large colonies. Most often the pest appears:
- in the absence of autumn digging of soil, a large number of pupae survive in the soil;
- if there is an abundance of weeds in the garden, at first the larvae feed on grass, and only then move on to tomato leaves;
- if there is a large amount of plant debris, the remains of old stems and leaves serve as a good winter shelter for the pupae.
Neglect of disinfection also contributes to the occurrence of armyworms. Normally, before planting tomatoes, the area needs to be disinfected to reduce the likelihood of fungi and pests appearing on the bushes.
Signs of defeat
Photos of cutworms on tomatoes confirm that fighting the pest can be quite difficult. Many caterpillars blend in color with green leaves, and during the day they often hide in the ground and come to the surface only at night.
Despite this, indirect signs help to recognize the presence of a pest on the site:
- small holes on the leaves that become larger over time;
- damage to buds and ovaries;
- small holes with eaten away pulp in ripening fruits;
- clusters of round white eggs on the surface of leaves.
Adult butterflies and caterpillars on tomatoes should be looked for in the evening or early in the morning.
Damage caused
Already from the description of the cutworm, you can understand that it is necessary to combat it - it causes serious harm to tomatoes. In particular:
- severely damages green leaves and causes drying and death of bushes;
- provokes rotting of affected tomatoes;
- attacks neighboring crops - corn, eggplants, beans.
The armyworm is dangerous because it lays eggs in large numbers and at the same time reproduces in waves.Pest control is hampered by the difficulty of detecting it.
How to get rid of cutworms on tomatoes
There are several ways to combat the fall armyworm on tomatoes. It is necessary to follow the rules of agricultural technology, regularly inspect the bushes, and if insects are detected, immediately carry out treatment.
Agrotechnical methods
In a small greenhouse or small garden, agricultural methods are used primarily to combat the parasite. Most often, traps are prepared for cutworms - adult butterflies are caught in them and cannot lay eggs. Thus, it is possible to interrupt the reproduction cycle of the parasite.
Traps usually use two types:
- Liquid. Place large containers next to the tomatoes and pour beer and fermented jam into them in a ratio of 1:3. The owls flock to the “treat”, get stuck in it and cannot get out.
The liquid cutworm trap should not be too high, otherwise the moth will not fall into it.
- Glowing. Night butterflies are attracted to moderately bright lights installed in a greenhouse or in garden beds. If you cover a light source with any sticky material, by morning there will be a lot of parasites on its surface. Then all that remains is to collect and destroy them.
Owl butterflies are most likely to fly to a warm greenish, yellow or orange glow
It is convenient to use agrotechnical methods to combat the parasite if the insect does not harm the tomatoes too much. If the armyworm has bred properly, traps are unlikely to be effective.
Folk remedies for cutworm on tomatoes
Homemade preparations help get rid of cutworms on tomatoes in a greenhouse or in the ground. To combat the parasite you can use:
- Garlic infusion.The arrows of the vegetable crop are crushed in a volume of 500 g, poured into a large jar and filled with 3 liters of water. The product is infused for a week in a closed form, after which it is filtered. To combat the cutworm, about 60 ml of the resulting solution is added to a bucket of water and 50 g of soap shavings are poured into it.
When fighting the fall armyworm, you need to spray tomatoes with garlic infusion up to three times a month.
- Kerosene solution. To prepare the insecticide, you need to dilute 350 g of laundry soap in 1 liter of hot liquid. The resulting product is mixed with 700 ml of kerosene and the entire composition is supplemented with 9 liters of clean water.
It is allowed to treat tomatoes with kerosene solution before flowering begins.
Use home remedies to control armyworms only in cloudy weather. Spraying in bright sun will help get rid of the parasite, but will leave burns on the leaves of the tomato.
Chemical preparations for cutworms on tomatoes
If the parasite has managed to cause serious damage to tomatoes, it is better to immediately use chemicals to combat it. Popular means include:
Coragen Expert Garden. It is necessary to dilute 4 ml per 10 liters of water for spraying. Spraying is carried out during the growing season. The consumption of induced liquid is about 2-4 liters per 100 m2. The waiting period after processing is only 21 days. The advantage of Coragen is its modern active ingredient and convenient packaging, which is suitable for reusable use.
- Inta-Vir. You need to dilute 8 g of powder or a tablet of the drug in a bucket of water. A homogeneous solution is used to spray tomatoes every two weeks.
Inta-Vir can be used to combat armyworms during the tomato flowering period.
- Spark.One tablet of the product is diluted in a small amount of water, and then the resulting suspension is added to 10 liters of liquid. Treatment of tomatoes as part of the fight against armyworm is carried out at the stage of active growing season of the crop; approximately 2 liters of the drug is enough to spray 10 m2.
The drug Iskra for tomatoes in the fight against armyworm can be reused after a two-week break
Chemical agents demonstrate good effectiveness in the fight against the parasite. But they cannot be used at the stage of fruit formation - toxins can accumulate in tomatoes.
Biological products
Biological products with a mild effect allow you to get rid of cutworms on tomatoes:
- Bitoxibacillin. The insecticide helps well in the fight against armyworms and is combined with most other chemical and biological preparations. It does not accumulate in tomatoes, so it can be used at almost any stage of the growing season.
Spraying with bitoxybacillin in the fight against cutworms is allowed five days before harvest.
- Agravertine. A natural neurotoxin has an inhibitory effect on parasites. The next day after treatment, the cutworm stops feeding on leaves and then dies within 2-3 days.
The protective effect of Agravertine lasts up to three weeks
An important advantage of biological products is their selective action. Beneficial insects and microorganisms do not suffer from the use of such products; the fight is only against pests.
Natural enemies
The most obvious natural enemies of armyworms are birds, which peck butterflies and caterpillars from leaves. However, attracting birds to the site is not always profitable - they feed not only on pests, but also on useful crops in the garden.
In the fight against the cutworm, it is better to use another natural enemy - Trichogramma. This insect releases its own eggs into the butterfly’s clutch and thus inhibits the development of the pest.
Trichogramma is used in the fight against cutworms both in the ground and in greenhouses, but in greenhouses the insect is more effective
Prevention
There are many methods to control the parasite, but the best way is to prevent the armyworm from spreading in the first place. To do this you need:
- regularly inspect the plantings in order to notice signs of damage in time;
- promptly remove plant debris from the site;
- weed the beds to remove weeds;
- Every autumn and spring, dig up the soil to combat pest pupae.
To protect against parasites, you can plant basil, cilantro or calendula next to the tomatoes - plants with a pungent odor.
Conclusion
It is necessary to combat the cutworm on tomatoes, since the caterpillars of the parasite can destroy the crop. There are many methods, but all of them are effective mainly in the initial stages of infection of plantings.
