Protect Your Tomatoes from those Vicious Caterpillars

Location: Lititz, PA

With so many things trying to attack my tomatoes its a wonder I even end up with enough to make a BLT! – Animals, blights & disease, insects and those darn caterpillars who are my current problem! One of the most damaging caterpillars is the Tomato Hornworm.

He is the larval stage of a hummingbird moth. when he emerges he is about 4.5 inches long, bright green and has a horned tail and I’ve seen them eating my tomatoes, fruit, stem, leaf, everything! He may also been eating peppers and eggplants.

So of course I don’t want to put harsh chemicals on my tomatoes…I plan to take them to work and share them… I plan to can them and make sauces… It seems yucky to be canning pesticide and sharing that stuff with my coworkers and family!

So, I’m using Garden Dust. It has Bt which stands for Bacillus thuringiensis which you can see is why most people just call it Bt. This stuff is OMRI listed and it kills leaf feeding worms and caterpillars…IMPORTANT…It does NOT kill earth worms… Earth worms = healthy garden… I wouldn’t dream of killing them.

So when I go to harvest my tomatoes that have been protected from the evil hornworm by my Garden Dust…I’ll just wash them and enjoy. Safer Brand products are not systemic so they don’t get into the fruit and end up in your body, they just wash off so I can enjoy my chemical-free sauces, sandwiches and feel confident sharing them with everyone.

Stay tuned… we are starting a tomato photo contest in July! Take a photo of your prize tomato and your safer Brand garden product and enter to win up to $300!