Pests of Cole Crops & Tomatoes

1. Pests of Cole Crops& Tomatoes

2. Imported Cabbage Worm

3. Crop: Cole Crops – cabbage, cauliflower, kale, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, turnips – mustard family (Cruciferae) • Scientific name: Pieris rapae • Order: Lepidoptera • Family: Pieridae • Range: worldwide • Mouthparts: Chewing

4. Whitish/yellow, rocket-shaped eggs are laid singly on the undersides of leaves

5. Distinguishing Characters: Larvae are green and very hairy, with an almost velvet-like appearance. Older larvae may be up to 25 mm (1 inch) long and often have one faint yellow orange stripe down their backs and broken stripes along the sides.

6. After 2 to 3 weeks of feeding, larvae pupate attached by a few strands of silk to stems or other nearby objects

7. Alternate Hosts: nasturtium, sweet alyssum, lettuce • Oviposition Site: undersides of leaves • Overwintering Stage: pupae • Number of generations/year: 2 - 6 • Damaging stages: larvae

8. Typical damage: feed on both the outer and inner leaves, often feeding along the midrib, at the base of the wrapper leaves, or boring into the heads, and drop greenish brown fecal pellets that may contaminate the marketed product.

9. Non Chemical control measures: • Biological control – Natural enemies can be significant. Important parasites include a pupal parasite Pteromaluspuparum; the larval parasites Apantelesglomeratus, Microplitisplutella, and several tachinid flies; and egg parasites in the Trichogramma genus. Viruses and bacterial diseases are also sometimes important control factors in the field

10. Chemical Control Measures: • Bacillus thuringiensis is very effective against imported cabbageworms, especially when applied to early-instar caterpillars • Spinosad (Success – a bacterial secondary metabolite) - may also combine with treatment for other lep pests with harder chemicals like malathion, diazanon, carbaryl, fenvalerate Current Pest Status: still a major pest

11. Cabbage Looper

12. Crop: Cole Crops, also lettuce, spinach, beet pea, celery, potato, tomato • Scientific name: Trichoplusia ni • Order: Lepidoptera • Family: Noctuidae • Range: Throughout US, part of Canada and Mexico • Mouthparts: chewing

13. Distinguishing Characters: Larvae - green, usually with a narrow white stripe along each side and several narrow lines down the back. Smooth-skinned with only a few long bristles down the back; up to an inch and a half long • distinctive looping movement

14. ridged and dome-shaped and usually laid singly on the undersurface of leaves

15. Adults are brownish moths with a distinctive silvery “figure-8” on the front wings

16. Alternate Hosts: carnations, nasturtium, mignonette • Oviposition Site: undersurface of leaves • Number of generations/year: 4 or more • Overwintering Stage: pupae (though in CA may be active all year) • Damaging stages: larvae

17. Typical damage: Eat ragged holes into leaves, bore through heads and contaminate heads and leaves with their bodies and frass. Young plants between seedling stage and heading can tolerate substantial leaf damage without loss of yield

18. Cabbage looper damage to leaves

19. Cabbage looper frass contamination

20. Non Chemical control measures: • Biological control – has a number of effective egg and larval parasitoids – A viral disease may also be important • Cultural control – Plow under crop remnants in spring to bury overwintering pupae before the emergence of adults

21. Cabbage looper killed by a nuclear polyhedrosis virus

22. Chemical Control Measures: • Use Bt sprays when possible to avoid disruption of natural enemies. Also spinosad or Methomyl (lannate) Current Pest Status: still a major pest

23. Treatment thresholds • Prior to heading, well-established plants do not need to be treated unless you find more than 9 small to medium sized larvae per plant. • Treat just before heading or at brussel sprouts formation if counts show more than one looper or other caterpillar in 25 plants

24. Adult vegetable leafminer (Liriomyza spp)

25. Leafminer mines

26. Cabbage aphid wingless adult

27. Cabbage aphid winged adult

28. Cabbage aphid colony

29. Large colonies of cabbage aphids can severely distort the growth of cabbage heads

30. Cabbage maggots damage and destroy root systems of all cole crops, riddling roots with tunnels when infestations are heavy

31. Diamondback moth

32. Tomato Pinworm

33. Crop: Tomato • Scientific name: Keiferia lycopersicella • Order: Lepidoptera • Family: Gelechiidae • Range: Throughout Southern CA, sporadically in San Joaquin Valley and along coast • Mouthparts: Chewing • Distinguishing Characters: Adults are small gray/brown moths.

34. Early instar larvae are orange, turning purplish black as they mature. Larvae grow to 6 mm (0.25 inch) in length

35. Alternate Hosts: eggplant, potato, ornamental plants and weeds in the Solanaceae (nightshade family) • Oviposition Site: under sepals or on leaves • Number of generations/year: 2 - 3 • Overwintering Stage: pupae • Damaging stages: larvae • Typical damage: caterpillar feeds on leaves and creates blotch-type mines but causes most of its damage when it attacks the fruit. Where abundant, the tomato pinworm may seriously damage foliage and infest nearly 100% of the fruit

36. Tomato pinworm irregular blotch mine (left) and meandering narrow mine of a leafminer (right).

37. Tomato pinworms bore into solid parts of fruit creating narrow tunnels

38. Tomato pinworm larva and entry holes are visible on tomato (calyx removed).

39. Brown frass around the calyx indicates tomato pinworm infestation

40. Non Chemical control measures: • Biological control – Parasites can be important • Cultural control – Sanitation – destroy all overwintering plants and fruit by burning or plowing under • Mating disruptants

41. Chemical Control Measures: • Combine with mating disruption – Bt, Methomyl, pyrethrin, abamectin Current Pest Status: still a major pest in some areas – varies with season

42. Tomato Fruitworm

43. Crop: Tomato, corn, cotton • Common Names: Tomato fruitworm, corn earworm, cotton bollworm • Scientific name: Helicoverpa zea • Order: Lepidoptera • Family: Noctuidea • Range: Worldwide • Mouthparts: Chewing

44. Distinguishing Characters: • larvae are variable in color when young, but later instars usually develop distinct, lengthwise stripes; they also have distinctive tiny spines that cover large portions of their skin • Adults - about 38 mm (1.5 inch) wingspan, color variable – forewing orange-ish to gray with darker area near tip

46. Note setae (“spines”)

47. Close up of setae

48. Pupate below surface of soil

50. Eggs are hemispherical, slightly flattened on top with 12 or more distinct ridges radiating from the top. They are creamy white when laid, but develop a reddish brown ring after 24 hours