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 Pteromalus puparum; the larval parasites Apanteles glomeratus, Microplitis plutella, 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
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

51. Alternate Hosts: vetch
Oviposition Site: tender new leaves
Number of generations/year: 3 - 4
Overwintering Stage: pupae
Damaging stages: larvae
Typical damage: Early stage larvae enter fruit at the stem end when it is between mm ( inches) in diameter. Caterpillars may emerge from one fruit and enter another. Feeding results in a messy, watery, internal cavity filled with cast skins and feces – also entry point for fungi

55. Larvae feeding on corn

57. Larvae feeding on cotton square

58. Larvae entering cotton boll

59. Non Chemical control measures:
Biological control – Naturally occurring parasites are very important in the biological control of tomato fruitworm, especially in the Delta area and the Sacramento Valley
A tomato fruitworm egg parasite, Trichogramma pretiosum, is available from many commercial insectaries. Inundative releases of 100,000 parasites/acre during the period of fruitworm oviposition and when fruit are susceptible to feeding can reduce damage
Cultural control – disk under after picking

60. Trichogramma pretiosum

61. Parasitized eggs appear blackened

62. Chemical Control Measures:
Esfenvalerate (Asana XL), Fenpropathrin (Danitol), Methomyl   (Lannate), Spinosaod (Success)
Current Pest Status: varies with the year

63. Treatment thresholds
For processing tomatoes, sample by picking the leaf below the highest open flower on 30 random plants. If five or more eggs are found, apply a treatment to coincide with hatching.
adjust for parasitized eggs

64. Greenhouse Whitefly

65. Crop: tomato, cucumber, lettuce, many ornamentals
Scientific name: Trialeurodes vaporariorum
Order: Hemiptera
Family: Aleyrodidae
Range: Worldwide
Mouthparts: piercing sucking

66. Distinguishing Characters: Whitefly adults are tiny (1. 5 mm [0
Distinguishing Characters: Whitefly adults are tiny (1.5 mm [0.06 inch] long), with yellowish bodies and white wings. Greenhouse White Fly hold their wings flatter over the back than other whiteflies and there is no space between the wings where they meet in the center of the back.
Adult and eggs

67. greenhouse whitefly pupae have many long waxy filament around the edge and the edge is somewhat vertical where it contacts the leaf surface

68. Greenhouse whitefly eggs

69. Alternate Hosts: 200 plant species, mostly in the families Cruciferae, Leguminosae, Malvaceae, and Solanaceae - other crops include avocados, beans, blackberries and other berries, cucumbers, eggplants, grapes
Oviposition Site: underside of leaves
Number of generations/year: multiple
Overwintering Stage: all stages
Damaging stages: adults and nymphs

70. Typical damage: Damage leaves by feeding, which causes leaves to yellow and curl, and by the production of honeydew. GWF has been found to be the vector of tomato infectious chlorosis virus, a virus capable of causing heavy losses

71. Non Chemical control measures:
Biological control – several important parasitoids and predators. Encarsia formosa, has been used successfully to control greenhouse whitefly in greenhouses
Cultural control – When possible, plant tomatoes at least one-half mile upwind from key whitefly hosts such as melons, cole crops, and cotton.
Maintain good sanitation in areas of winter/spring host crops and weeds by destroying and removing all crop residues as soon as possible

72. Chemical Control Measures:
Imidacloprid (Admire), Oxamyl (Vydate L), Esfenvalerate (Asana XL), Endosulfan (Thiodan)
Current Pest Status: still a serious pest

73. Consperse stink bug

74. southern green stink bug

75. Red shouldered stink bug

76. Say's stink bug

77. Stink bugs feeding discolors fruit and may introduce decay fungi

78. Tomato hornworm larvae

79. Tomato hornworm adult (Sphingidae)