It’s so exciting when you spot your first red tomato of the season. But when you see armyworm caterpillars in your vegetable garden, there is no time to spare. By the time you see signs of armyworms or armyworm damage it can be an uphill battle. An armyworm infestation can devour a tomato plant in record time. They don’t discriminate. These destructive pests can cause significant damage and will eat the leaves and the fruit, red or green. They don’t just attack tomatoes either — they can destroy most of your vegetable garden plants.
Armyworms can remain hidden from site because they hide in the shade on the underside of leaves during the day. Armyworm larvae vary depending on the different species of armyworm. There are three species of armyworms:
Western Yellowstriped Armyworm – These have two large and many smaller yellow stripes. In the larval stage they are black.
Beet Armyworm – These are pale green with light colored stripes that run down the length of the worm. The eggs are laid and covered with hair-like scales.
Yellowstriped Armyworm – These have two large and many smaller yellow stripes. The larvae are black.
The good news is once you spot them there are five strategies for armyworm control. You can save your plants from these garden pests, but act fast!
1.) Pull them off the plant and drop them in a bucket of soapy water, or stomp on them. Be sure they are dead, so they don’t just crawl right back into your garden. This can be a fun activity for kids in the garden.
2.) Spray your garden with Spinosad. This armyworm treatment is an organic pest spray that can kill a variety of worms and caterpillars and is safe to spray on food that will be eaten later. You can find spinosad based products at Amazon.
3.) Spread Bacillus Thuringiensis Dust (“BT”) – BT is not toxic to humans or animals and it may take a few days to work. Without giving you all of the gory details basically worms are no longer able to eat and they die. BT products are available on Amazon.
4.) Neem Oil – Neem oil comes from the neem tree, and will work for smaller worms and larvae but it won’t always work on larger adult armyworms. You can read more about neem oil in this article: Neem Oil General Fact Sheet. Neem oil can be irritating to skin and eyes. Make sure you read the product label and be sure to wash any fruit that is sprayed. There are many neem sprays available on Amazon.
5.) Use natural predators in your garden. This can be a harder one to manage, but there are some insects you can add to your garden that are natural enemies of armyworms. There are many birds and beneficial insects that can destroy armyworms. You can use bird feeders to attract birds to your garden. Beneficial insects include ladybugs, lacewings and trichogramma wasps. The trichogramma wasps are parasitic wasps that insert their eggs inside of pest eggs killing the larvae. See more about that in this article: Know Your Friends Trichogramma Wasps. You can purchase wasp eggs for your garden at Amazon.
Let us know if you have tried any of these and how they worked for you.
If you want to read more about armyworms see these articles below.
The Best Way to Get Rid of Armyworms on My Tomatoes
thanks for the info, they already destroyed my tomato, pepper, zennia, and marigold. I moved to a new place and those worms destroyed my plants, I dislike them for that. What I want to know is what plants they can’t destroy
I cannot believe that this article says that it would be a “fun” activity to get children to stomp on army worms. I understand pests in the garden need to be dealt with – and if that means introducing predator insects or reptiles into the garden or using bee safe pest sprays, so be it. However, teaching children that killing living things, including garden pest insects, is “fun” is about as ignorant as it gets. The author of that sentence should be ashamed.
Below is a quote authored by someone intelligent and with a sense of compassion:
“Teaching a child not to step on a caterpillar is as valuable to the child, as it is to the caterpillar.”-Bradley Miller
This insensitive author probably just loves pushing your sensitive little buttons. Maybe you should try some mental armor on before surfing the web. You obviously have other places to find information, but instead spend your time criticizing a stranger for being different than yourself. I wonder if Bradley Miller has ever been stung by a yellow jacket…. Some living things are predatory, and simply die at the hands of bigger predators. We cant all be Ghandi in the garden…………
Love it!!!??
I criticized an author for suggesting in her article that parents teach their children that killing is fun.
The person “criticizing a stranger [who thinks] different[ly]” is actually you.
And without even reading my original comment in full—or fully understanding the criticism contained therein.
And when authors make comments that are ignorant they should be called out. That’s not me being sensitive, that’s me being intelligent.
If you cannot stand a little rub, how do you ever expect to be polished?
🙂
Get real, if you have a problem killing parasite worms your problems run deep.
I’m going to agree with Cristal. While parasite worms do need to go for healthier plants, teaching children that it’s fun to kill a living thing, no matter how small, could lead to bigger problems. By teaching children that, they will begin killing other living things. For example, if you teach the child that killing parasitic caterpillars is fun, they might move onto helpful caterpillars. Then they might move onto the rabbit that eats the plants in the garden. Then just rabbits in general. By telling the child it’s fun to kill the parasitic caterpillar, they could develop a worse mental condition.
Thanks for the backup and the insight.
Wow, this is the issue we face everywhere today. People that will not even agree to disagree.
When I was young, I killed insects, I shot birds with a BB gun, I hunted rabbits and deer. With that said, the analogy of teaching kids to kill creates a monster (you said could lead to other darker things) could not be more wrong.
Why I am not evil and I no longer kill things for the sport. In fact, I have not hunted in over 25 years. Instead today I embrace all life. I have multiple bird feeding stations, birdhouses, a couple of raccoons regularly feed on that I set out for them, I have lots of gardens, fruit trees, and berry bushes. I even live trap and release the rodents that are unwelcome guests.
You could say that is a complete 180-degree change from my youth, and you are right. We too often read too deep into things. Getting kids to help in the garden is harder than getting them to the dentist.
What you could add here is a solution. Explain to your children that some insects have to be eradicated, at least if you want to eat. Explain to them while killing off armyworms is a necessity, you do not want to hurt other insects that are very important, like honey bees and other insects that pollinate the flowers that in turn give us fruit/food to eat.
Or, you can just pull up a couple of lawn chairs and sit with your kid(s) and watch them worms destroy months of hard work and sweat caring for your garden. Your choice.
The whole idea here is to look at a topic from different sides and be willing to make compromises on both sides.
I am a great example of the old if you phrase “if you teach them to kill they will turn out evil”, is quite an old gossip tale.
Since around 2006 there is a lot of hate and nasty words flying around. It is time to realize we are all human. Try being nice to one another for a change. Sometimes comprise makes both sides a winner.
Very well said! ?
Maybe your comprehension problems run deep.
If you had fully read my original comment, you would’ve understood that I clearly state that while garden pests have to be dealt with, it’s ignorant to suggest that adults should teach their children that killing is fun.
Big , big difference from killing an army of garden pests and killing people.
I agree, let’s not teach children to kill , kill, kill .
“Lets not teach kids to kill, kill, kill?” If a bunch of birds decided the garden pests look delicious then you can bet the birds are going to kill, kill, kill, and eat, eat, eat.
You should have to deal with these things in a hay field if you had 3 grand of fertilizer tied I bet you would be stomping worms to and wouldn’t have time to set and criticize someone else’s comment
You are so RIGHT, JD. My son is battling army worms in his hay fields as we speak. He has to have hay to feed his cattle, which feed people. Believe me, farmers understand stomping on army worms by whoever can stomp!!!
Yay! Somebody with some common sense.
It would be a learning activity for kids because it teaches kids that garden pests that destroy your hard work need to be dealt with swiftly. Some creatures can make small work of a plant.
OMG ! They are worms; not puppies.
You freaking hippies are going to be the end of us humans. I assume you let mosquitoes, fleas and ticks bite you too.
Killing can be fun… have you ever taken a bath and killed millions of bacteria, caught and eaten a fish, cut and eaten a tomato from the vine ?! All living things eat and kill other living things to survive, its called God’s design for Nature
Wake up and get back to reality !!
OMG
Killing bugs is something that we need to do. Teach kids to be quick, and practical. Its not “fun” . You don’t need them crying over it, but they shouldn’t be looking forward to it either.
Well stated.
I really don’t think the author intended anything sinister here. Haha, I just think he/she meant to say that getting the children involved could be a fun and educational activity. They are learning about how to properly care for a garden, while simultaneously engaging in a game of hide and seek with the worms. I don’t think the intention is to actively teach them to be little killers. The fact that some people even interpreted it as such is slightly alarming to me.
Cristal, you are a hippie and a moron and a troll
Well I’m all for killing, smashing, lighting on fire these Damn worms. Is there any home remedies I can use other than chemicals to kill them all?
Thank you for this article. We just had army worms invade our garden and spent hours picking off the worms yesterday to find there are just as many, if not more, today. Time for plan B. Now at least we know what plan B can entail.
Wow! The next time you pick up a tomato at your local grocery store think about all the bugs that died in the course of tree harvesting, transport of the trees to paper mills to make the pulp into paper. Then consider the bug mortality in the manufacture of the inks and coatings to create the seed packaging. Oh, now the seeds had to be protected and preserved for next season’s planting. More bugs got killed so the grower could have quality seeds to plant. Then the seeds have to be planted. Oops, more bugs get stepped on and run over by equipment. SQUISH! Like it or not the growth of the plant has to be protected. More dead bugs … either chemicals or natural means. AAHW! Now the tomato get harvested. More squished bugs from foot steps and equipment. Then the tomatoes must be washed, sorted, packaged or crated, transported, and delivered. More dead bugs all along the way. Bugs and the windshield of 18 wheels don’t mix well. Now the tomatoes go to your grocery store. When was the last time you shopped af a fly and worm infested grocery store? Thought so! Ever get bugs on your windshield? Or run a bug over unwittingly in the road? Or if a fly comes in you house while you enter with you fresh tomatoes, do you practice catch and release? Yeah! Oh by the way, I ate rabbit last night, chicken today, and my wife is preparing baked Ziti tonight. Yup, there will be tomatoes in it because alot of bugs died to get it here! Get real!
Well said !!!! It is alarming how detached from real life some people are and have no clue where food comes from .
It amazes me that the real issue always gets sidelined while everyone gets excited about some new notion of speach patrol. My part of the world is suffering an invasion of these worms, a serious widespread, making the news invasion. I am past 60 and always lived around here and this has never happened like this before. The real issue here is why is this happening. Our climate has been much cooler the past couple of years, I am not seeing the birds I used to see around here. What has happened to them? Is the lack of predators causing worm population explosion? Is it possible to get anyone looking for real answers? Worrying about this article turning kids into bad people is really farfetched since very few kids will ever read this.
Some bugs I like like and some bugs I don’t. I kill indiscriminately those I don’t like. It just doesn’t bother me in the least. If I don’t kill then then some other critter will.
really ! what happened to you people,a bunch of sissys. how you could turn killing army worms with kids into anything bad like murdering folks whats wrong with you its army worms and while your telling your children not to kill people just remember freedom wasnt free our great milataries killed other people to give you what you have today so wise up sissys and be a real person not a softy retard
My, My, My, we reap what we sow. All this over armyworms? Seriously? Ya’ll are a hoot! And I thought Twitter was bad! Go out and do something kind today! Smile at a stranger. Work in your garden. Feel the bright sun on your skin and wind in your hair. Life is too short! May God Bless all of Ya’ll!
I’ve tried Neem oil, Spinosad, BT and several other pesticides in my vegetable garden.
Nothing is stopping the Army worms from destroying my plants.
Any suggestions will be appreciated.