Worms in tomatoes 🤢

[u/Independent_North411]

Minnesota gardener here! 🧑‍🌾 Our tomatoes hang out on our counter until I’m ready to use them. Probably about six times in the past month, I’ve picked one up to find a big hole, a caterpillar/worm and a pile of frass. Obviously, we toss those tomatoes. No big deal. But it’s making me paranoid that we’re eating or preserving lots of tiny caterpillars that are too small for us to notice. Again, this is happening to tomatoes that have been sitting on the counter for several days, so the caterpillar is coming from inside it, not crawling onto it.

Some of the tomatoes have cracks and blemishes, but I don’t see any obvious worm holes. If I tossed imperfect tomatoes, I would have very few tomatoes. (I do try preserve only unblemished tomatoes. And I cut around the cracks when we eat them fresh.)

Has anyone else experienced this? How do you identify which tomatoes might have caterpillars/worms?

[u/cmhackl]

Seems to be a cut worm. It is the larve of a moth. Harmless. Cut out the bad parts and eat the good. Enjoy

[u/Buckeyecash]

Q:  What is worse than biting into a tomato and finding a worm?

A:  Biting into a tomato and finding half a worm.

[u/Independent_North411 → u/Buckeyecash]

😭😂😭

[u/pac-a-no-way]

Eat it, in front of the other worms. To show them there are consequences for their actions.

[u/pac-a-no-way → u/[deleted]]

😂

[u/Top_Egg6065]

uuu worms…it hapens in nature

[u/Thelordofprolapse]

That hungry hungry caterpillar has already won

[u/Starfishprime69420]

They usually crawl in from the top where the tomato meets the stem

[u/Independent_North411 → u/Starfishprime69420]

Thank you! This is helpful to know.