My tomato plants have not had a good year. Only two of the original six that I planted are even close to where they were last year or should be this year. From an earlier post, I learned that my plants have verticulum (?) wilt or early blight. I sprayed them with an organic fungicide, but they're still pretty sick.

Today I found these white seed-like objects on the leaf of one of the two healthy (sort of healthy) plants. What is this? How do I get rid of it? Should I rip out my tomato plants and hope for a better growing season last year.


I'm afraid to touch this stuff. What should I do? HELP!!!!!

The white objects are eggs attached to the back of a large green tomato worm. Put on a rubber glove and remove the worm and eggs and discard. Look for more worms and discard them......

The hornworm is already doomed. As Paul said, put on your gloves, pick it off and discard it.

Yes, that is a terrifying sight. Just snip off the leaf.

and... don't rip out your tomato plants!

...OR just leave it alone to allow the eggs to hatch to help you dispatch any other unwanted & destructive tomato hornworms that may be lingering.

Janine is right; those are highly beneficial insects. Leave them be so they can complete their task.

is this a hawk moth? I really like those in my garden and don't see them as often I would like. Sometimes "worms" turn out to be pretty thingies...

SusanPing said:My tomato plants have not had a good year. Only two of the original six that I planted are even close to where they were last year or should be this year. From an earlier post, I learned that my plants have verticulum (?) wilt or early blight. I sprayed them with an organic fungicide, but they're still pretty sick.

Today I found these white seed-like objects on the leaf of one of the two healthy (sort of healthy) plants. What is this? How do I get rid of it? Should I rip out my tomato plants and hope for a better growing season last year.


I'm afraid to touch this stuff. What should I do? HELP!!!!!

Don't discard them. Just set them elsewhere in the yard. Those "seeds" are parasitic wasps that control the hornworm population. You want to let them eat the hornworm and spread!

unless you like hawkmoths? then you don't want the wasps.

I'm so thankful for all of the good advice. I tried to find the hornworm this morning without success.
Based on the info provided in these posts, I guess that's not a bad thing.
Thank you all!!!

Parasitic? Verrrrry INTERESTING!

I had this problem, a tomato worm problem, many years ago with incredibly healthy tomato plants that were nearly destroyed within a week. I heard noises coming from the plants in the evening. Turns out the culprit tomato worms make a clicking noise when the eat, and they eat voraciously. They like to hide under leaves, the tender ones near the top, but anywhere actually. You almost can't see them they are so wewll camouflaged. I picked about 3 dozen of them off by hand and discarded them, yes gross. However I saw that a few of the worms had white eggs embedded in them like you have posted. In reading up, I found that a wasp lays these eggs in live worms and the larvae of the wasp feeds on them, thus killing them. The article recommended NOT to disturb the egg laden worms so as not to disturb the natural enemy of the worm.

I grow extra plants for the worms, and move them to those. I like the moths, so I don't kill them or allow any wasps to develop here. The moths are beautiful.

I like the sphinx moths too -- haven't seen any yet this year, though.

Agree with those who said white objects are wasp eggs. These wasps are highly beneficial and parasitize the hornworm larva. When they hatch, the larva burrow through skin and proceed to eat the caterpillar from inside out, leaving a mummy. The adults are free living so these are more correctly parasitoids since their entire life cycle is not spent on or in host.

I move the hornworms to far sites in the yard. Some have the parasitic wasp eggs some don't. I love the sphinx moths. And while I don't ever have the hornworms on my tomato plants for long, they live long enough on other plants to mature.

We have a tolerant balance between the hornworms and the moths... I don't allow them to damage the tomatoes, the wasps get their replication, and I get the sphinxs.

A win, win, win!

Zencat said:A win, win, win!

Thank you.