Episode 39: Green Worms Are Devouring My Tomatoes

About This Episode

On this week’s episode of Ask Grumpy, Steve Bender, also known as Southern Living’s Grumpy Gardener, addresses a reader’s question on green worms devouring your tomatoes. Plus, his pick for Plant of the Week.

Question Of The Week

I just found a couple of huge green worms eating all the leaves on my tomato plant. What are they, and what should I do?

Grumpy Gardener Answer: This is a very common problem. These worms, they hatch out from eggs laid on the plant by moths. In the beginning, you hardly ever see them because they grow into these big, green caterpillars. There's two types, one has a black spine on the back, and one has a red spine on the back. But don't worry about that, makes no difference how you treat them. What they do is they get on your plants, and they crawl up, and they hang on the underside of the leaf, and feed. And because they're the same color as the stem and the leaf, you hardly even know they're there until you'll come out one morning, and your plant has no leaves. And there are these big, ugly caterpillars, like three inches long and they will totally devour a plant in one night. So you probably don't want that to happen. Now here's a couple things you can do. If you discover that, what you should do is go out and search your plant every morning and look under the leaves, because that's where they'll be hiding. If these caterpillars are small, let's say less than maybe an inch or so, you can spray with a natural insecticide called spinosad. That's S-P-I-N-O-S-A-D. It's completely natural. It's safe to you. But when the caterpillars eat it, they die. However, if you're a bit late doing that, and they get up to the three to four inch side, these insecticides doesn't work so well. So when you discover them at that size, my advice is: grab your fishing pole, and let's catch something.

Plant Of The Week

It's still time to think about changing out all your summer annuals and putting in your cool season annuals because the summer ones, are probably looking pretty ragged by now with all the months of heat and humidity and everything.

But it's a good time to get your cool weather stuff started because you want those things to develop a really good root system. In time, so that when it does get cold they'll still be blooming and looking good. You always feel bad about having to rip out plants that have flowers on them, but really it's a good time to do it. There's a really good selection right now at all of your garden centers. So some of the ones you're going to want to plant will be things like pansies and violas and ornamental cabbage and ornamental kale and snapdragons. And the thing is if you plant them now, you'll get flowers in the fall. If you live in a mild climate, let's sayin zone eight or below, they will give you flowers in the wintertime on mild days. And then you're going to get a big display in the springtime. So, when you plant them, be sure and give them a little drink of fertilizer, just to get them off to a good start. Make sure you keep them well-watered, when it's still hot and steamy so they don't melt on you. And then get them attractive, get them vigorous, and they'll carry you through for a couple months of good color.

About Ask Grumpy

Ask Grumpy is a podcast featuring Steve Bender, also known as Southern Living’s Grumpy Gardener. For more than 20 years, Grumpy has been sharing advice on what to grow, when to plant, and how to manage just about anything in your garden. Tune in for short episodes every Wednesday and Saturday as Grumpy answers reader questions, solves seasonal conundrums, and provides need-to-know advice for gardeners with his very Grumpy sense of humor. Be sure to follow Ask Grumpy on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen so you don't miss an episode.

Editor’s Note: Please be mindful that this transcript does not go through our standard editorial process and may contain inaccuracies and grammatical errors.