Hi Everybody,
In the past couple of weeks, I am getting the first ripe tomatoes of the season. Yay - they are good.
But, just now, I went to pick one, but sort of knocked it right off the vine, without any pulling. And I find...
Right inside the fruit, where it was connected to the stem... A caterpillar, about 1 cm or so long, white- ish, with a black head. It had definitely been
*inside* the fruit, and had sort of dug itself in. There was a small amount of black stuff and damage immediately surrounding the bug. But there was *not* any sign of entry or tunneling.So maybe this pest came through the stem? Perhaps some butterfly or moth laid an egg in the flower?
Note that I am in New Zealand, and had vaguely heard (I.e. "I-read-it-on-the-Internet-so-it-must-be-true") that we don't have the regular tomato borer worms here.
Any ideas on ID and defence?
Thanks...