» Cutworms, Aphids, Moths, Hornworm, and Tomato Hornworm

Cutworms, Aphids, Moths, Hornworm, and Tomato Hornworm

Q. Can you give me the Pesticide Protocol from day one to harvest for leafy veggies, tomatoes, and corn. We went to Johannesburg for a week. When we returned – the leaves looked like knitted doilies! Someone told me that Diamondback Moths flew in while we were gone. Our tomato leaves are curling up in spite of using micro-nutrients. My lowest tomatoes had holes pecked in them (birds?). What’s these little black things I see crawling around my corn stocks when I part the big leaves?

You didn’t tell me about all these secret combinations and the Gadianton Gophers! Growing seems to be the easy part (preparing, chemicals, planting, watering, and weeding) it’s keeping them alive and looking good that’s got me stumped – right now!

A. Early damage to vegetables often comes from cut worms aka soil maggots, which live just under the soil surface. Mix Diazanon crystals with sawdust at the rate of 1/4 teaspoon per 16 ounces. Place the mix around the stems of your plants. When the cutworms surface to feed at night they will have to get past the diazanon, will ingest it and die.

To eliminate pests on your vegi’s when you get a build-up, such as the black aphid you describe (they come in several colors), mix whichever of the folling you can get, Diazanon, Sevin, or Malathion, at the rate of 1 ounce per 3 gallons of water, and spray your crop. Because the effectiveness of these materials wears off quickly (3 or 4 days), you may have to do it several times, and you don’t want to do it in the last few days before harvest.

If the holes you mention are square, it’s probably mites. You need to spray them also.

You mention moths. They don’t eat your vegi’s but their larva do, and would need to be sprayed as well.

To protect corn from the corn borer and the corn ear borer, drop just 3 or 4 crystals or a small amount of diazanon, Sevin, or Malathion powder into the whirl (the growing tip of the plant), and on the silk as it first appears and is just 2-3″ long.

Tomato hornworms are big enough that the most effective control is to pick them off the plant and kill them. Evidence of their presence is stripped leaves on the plant. Look carefully, as they are so similar in color they are almost invisible.

Up-turned curling tomato leaves most often are the result of nitrogen, potassium, or magnesium deficiency. Look in the Garden Doctor and correct for those, and you’ll probably cure the symptoms.

Some people advocate the use of mineral oil to stop some pests. However, mineral often stops pollination, and we don’t recommend it.

I hope this helps.