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Tomato Pests & Diseases

tiny worms attached to tomato stem

16 years ago

I found this little guy and another one like him attached to the stem of an otherwise healthy tomato plant. The other, slightly smaller worm is pictured in another post, "eggs on tomato leaf--good guys or bad?" They seem to crawl rather than inch. Can anyone give me an ID and control measures if necessary? I'm trying to avoid spraying anything broad-spectrum, as I have aphids in controlled numbers with both lacewings and ladybug larvae hanging around. The plants all got BT a week ago (though it's rained since).

Thanks!

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Comments (3)

jean001
16 years ago
That's a larva of a flower fly. Preserve it because they kill aphids.
malorn
16 years ago
As jean said...these are really good guys...avoid loosing them!
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buffett
Original Author
16 years ago
Good news, hooray! Thanks, that's definitely my guy. And I saw plenty of adults hovering around my alyssum this morning, so hopefully more are on the way.

My favorite image from a google search shows one of 'em devouring an aphid. Excellent.

Here is a link that might be useful: scroll down about 2/5 of the way

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