How To Get Rid Of Tomato Hornworms Naturally
Ugh! It’s tomato hornworm season in the vegetable garden. I opened my mouth to soon, just yesterday I told hubby I hadn’t had any pest in the garden this year. Luckily I only found one tomato worm, that I could find anyway, and got right on picking it off and squashing it under my shoe.
Hornworms are quite large and always startle me when I find one. They blend in perfectly with the plant and are sometimes hard to find. A good indication of where they are hiding is right above a pile of poop dropping located on the leave below them. Many times the droppings are easier to find than the worm.
I have a sure fire way to get rid of them and it works every time. When I was a new hairstylist many moons ago I had an elderly, 99 year old, client from Ireland that had the best garden tips and as she talked I took it all in. Why is it the old timers have the best way of doing things and more often than not you’ll never find these ways documented anywhere?
Here’s what she told me to do….In the early morning or late evening when there’s dew on the tomato plant take out your flour sifter filled with flour and sprinkle the flour over the entire tomato plant. Done! Yep, that’s it, that’s all you have to do; just sprinkle the tomato plant with ordinary baking flour. Apparently the tomato worm munches on the tomato plant leaf dusted with flour and it puffs them up and makes them explode.
I’ve been using this method for 30 years now and it never fails. Now if it rains you’ll have to redust the plants but it cheap and easy to do. I know there’s many products on the market that do the same thing but this is natural. I normally only do it once I find an actual worm and one dose normally does the trick, unless like I said it happens to rain right after I do it.
So there you have it, all you need is a trip to your kitchen pantry to solve the tomato hornworm problem. I’ve never seen or heard of this method used anywhere, have you?
I need to check my tomato plants.
Thanks for tip on the baking flower. I’ll be using it hopefully it will work 😀
Never heard tell of this, not even from my Celtic clan elders, but I will give it a whirl!!
Wow! that’s a new one for me! Will have to give it a try if i see any of those critters this year! TFS
Yikes, they explode? Eeeww!! wonder if that also works for other pests, like June bugs?
I dusted my tomato plants using regular, everyday flour… with disastrous results. I’ve had to drastically prune all my tomato plants of their pink spotted, dying leaves and stems. I’m just hoping my plants survive and the existing tomatoes continue to grow.
I WILL NOT dust any plants with flour again.
Same thing happened to me.
I believe that the “dusting” should be limited and not choking out the sunlight on the leaves. Also, after a rain rather than dew might afford a glue like coating…something to think about. Plants survive a coating of kaolin clay used as a deterrent as well, so why not flour?
I’ve always used DE (diatamacious earth) to stop damaging pests, but will try flour this summer. I apply DE at the soil level around basil and other plants that slugs like; I also save our rose stems/stalks to put around containers to keep them away. (Please Note: DE can hurt bees, lady bugs and the like so be careful. Don’t apply on blossoms or foliage, only on the stems and leaves. If bees start crawling on stems/leaves of a plant with DE, spray it off with water. Apply early AM or late PM when there is less activity. Bees seem to have some natural defenses that protect them from DE. Tui Rose, author of Going Green Using DE How-to Tips: “When DE is applied to crops or orchards, the honey bee tends to protect themselves by simply avoiding those blossoms already treated with DE. However, if DE does get on a bee’s body, it is covered with slick hairs that are able to help prevent dehydration of body fluids. Then the bee simply vibrates its wings rapidly to remove the dust and protect itself.” DE can be applied as a pesticide without harming them. By using DE, you will also replace toxic chemicals with an organic alternative, which will not only benefit bees but the environment as well.)