Preventive Control
Natural enemies
Parasitoids
- Braconid
- Tachinid flies
- Trichogramma
Predators
- Bigeyed bugs
- Damselflies
- Hoverflies
- Lacewing Lacewing
- Ladybird beetles
- Minute pirate bugs
- Praying mantis
- Spiders
Monitoring
Randomly select 30 tomato plants and examine the leaves immediately below the topmost open flowers to look for eggs. When you find more than 5 eggs, start controlling the pest (AVRDC, 2000).
When there is one fresh larval feeding damage on a green fruit from the randomly selected 40 plants and/or when 7 moths are trapped per week, a control measure is needed (Bessin, 2003). Remember, it only makes sense to control the larvae before they start to feed inside the fruits.
Management and cultural practices
- Remove the weeds. Plow the field to expose the pupae to predators and weather.
- Practice crop rotation. Do not plant other solanaceous crops after harvesting tomato. Never use tomato as a rotation crop for corn, sorghum, and cotton.
- Avoid planting tomato or pepper near corn or cotton to prevent heavy pest infestations.