What is the best product to kill Tomato worms?

[Paper Roses]

I Googled for an answer and most suggest pulling them off the plant. No way am I touching these things.
Since I share a garden with a woman who seems to have her own ideas, I hesitate to jump in and spray without proving to her that whatever I use will not hurt anything. She has taken over the garden but my other neighbor(we all share the garden spot) is hesitant to do anything for fear of causing a ruckus.
I need the name of a good product that can be used that is 'harmless'.
Any ideas?

Remember this post? Yes, same garden bully.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/11596110

Help Please.

[Major Nikon]

1. Diatomaceous earth or Bt should work

Both are harmless to humans and don't effect most beneficial insects.

NRaleighLiberal is the tomato guy, so PM him if he doesn't reply here. You might want to take a picture of them so they can be identified.

[fasttense]

2. Spinosad

It's an organically approved plant eating bug killer. It was discovered in the soil outside of a rum distillery. It is a bacteria that affects an insect's gut. Anyway it has several versions of it so make sure you get the one that kills catapillars. It is effective but only lasts about a week, less if it rains. It is absorbed by the plant and when a bug eats the plant it kills the bug.

It is more effective than BT but it breaks down very quickly.

[GreatGazoo]

3. gloves?

do they look like this?



If "yes":

The white projections are the larvae of the braconid wasp, Cotesia congregatus. Larvae that hatch from the wasp’s eggs, which are laid on the hornworm, feed on the inside of the hornworm until the wasp is ready to pupate. Such “host” hornworms should be left in the garden in order to conserve the beneficial parasites. The wasps will kill the hornworms when they emerge from their cocoons. They will also seek out other hornworms to feed upon and kill.

Want to attract this hornworm-destroying wasp to your garden? Then plant, and preferably near your tomatoes, such things as parsley, dill, yarrow, and mustard. Adult wasps feed on the nectar of these plants. Also, provide a source of water. A birdbath will suffice.

And finally, I hope you won’t scream if you notice a host-hornworm on your tomato vines. For it means your garden is ecologically balanced, thanks to your non-use of pesticides.

http://www.agardenforthehouse.com/2011/08/when-not-to-kill-a-tomato-hornworm/

By all means move the leave-eating worms off your tomatoes but if they have the wasp larvae you may want to leave them alive somewhere else to foster more wasps as an easy control.

[femmocrat]

4. Do you mean the big hornworms?

I cut off the branch they are on and dispose of the entire branch in the trash (or just throw it in the woods!). They stay on the branch and no need to touch them. I wouldn't spray them either.

[Curmudgeoness]

5. I do the same thing.

There is no way that I am touching the worms, but I also do not want them on my plants. My solution is also to cut the leaf off and dispose of it.

[NRaleighLiberal]

6. The big tomato worms (hornworms), or smaller ones that burrow into the fruit (fruit worms)?

tomato hornworm



tomato hornworm with parasitic wasp pupae



Tomato fruit worm



I don't spray - if you don't want to touch them, cut off the leaf it is attached to and put it in a bird feeder (platform type) - birds love them! If they have the white pupae, leave it - the wasps in the white pupae hatch and eat the hornworm from the inside out and make more wasps that go after more hornworms.

For the fruit worms, use something to poke them off the plant or fruit and feed to the birds - if they are in the tomato, remove it and toss it far away!

No need to spray for pests that large and easy to see - in my opinion, anyway!