Earworms are also referred sometimes as the fruit worm. They look like caterpillars and can grow over an inch in length. Their color range can be green, brown, yellow or tan and have black or brown stripes on their sides. They lay their eggs in the spring then continue to eat the silk of corn before it gets to the actual ear. However, this pesky insect does not just limit itself to corn. It also goes after beans, peas, peppers, potatoes, squash and tomatoes.

Spray the affected plants with Btn which is bacillus thuringiensis in the spring just before the eggs begin to hatch. Bacillus thuringiensis is a soil dwelling bacterium that is commonly used as a natural pesticide. It occurs naturally in caterpillars as well as moths, butterflies and on the surface of dark plants.

Create an environment in your garden to allow beneficial insects to enter. Such insects include lacewings and trichogramma wasps. A lacewing is a winged insect in the order Neuroptera and a trichogramma wasp is a common wasp insect used to control pests.

Finally spray the affected plants with neem oil or insecticidal soap. This will help build a repellent against future attacks. Both are safe for the environment; just remember to wash your veggies before consumption.

Earworms can be pesky and quite damaging to a number of plants if you do not take the time to protect them. As you can see from the tips above the process is fairly simple to keep these small insects at bay so your vegetables can grow big, strong and tasty.

Mike is the author of the book Vegetable Gardening for the Average Person: A guide to vegetable gardening for the rest of us, available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and where ever gardening books are sold. He can be reached at his website: http://www.AveragePersonGardening.com where you can sign up for his free newsletter and he will send you a pack of vegetable seeds to get your home vegetable garden started.

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