I completely agree with you, why would anyone kill caterpillars on plants you mentioned above. However, on edible plants such as the OP's tomato plant what do you do? Let it kill the plant? I don't know what kind of caterpillar it was, a future beautiful butterfly or a nondescript moth but either way it has to go. You could remove it and put it on some other plant but what if is a plant the caterpillar doesn't eat. What about loopers on your spring greens. Pick dozens them off one by one or use Bt or do what the OP did, feed them to the wolf spiders?
You just don't spray Bt willy nilly all over the place. It is only used when there is a problem, not when there might be a problem next week. Bt isn't active very long when in the sunlight. A few hours at most. It is so effective that when a caterpillar eats a single bite it immediately stops feeding and is dead within 4-6 hours. This is why Bt should by sprayed in the late afternoons, to give ALL of the damaging caterpillars a chance to get a bite. I have never seen a butterfly caterpillar kill a grown food source plant either. But the OP's was a little seedling and I have seen caterpillars kill them.
Neem kills everything, Bt only caterpillars. Neem takes a day to kill, Bt a few hours. Neem stays active much longer then Bt. Neem has its place, just not for caterpillars. Spinosad kills everything too but caterpillars faster than neem. Neem is great for scale insects, both hard and soft, while spinosad isn't.
No, you protect your food source. I agree with that 100%, but might have a different way of doing it. I would be the first one to take a caterpillar off a tomato plant and pop it in the fridge.
Thank you for explaining how BT is used because i really had no idea so i have learned something but i am still not buying it. The research in France has been on-going for some years.
I would like to read about the French research. Links?No, you protect your food source. I agree with that 100%, but might have a different way of doing it. I would be the first one to take a caterpillar off a tomato plant and pop it in the fridge.
I have a hard time believing in claims of "perfectly safe" re the BT issue. After all, DDT was "perfectly safe" for a lot of years (a matter of economics), thalyidimide was "perfectly safe" until untold numbers of babies were born without limbs, and how many years were cigarettes "perfectly safe" when they knew they were not. I could go on and on about the "perfectly safe" issue. I follow the science, i follow the self interest, i follow who is paying for the research to be done and if there is not compelling information, i am not buying it and i don't need it. Just a little quirk of mine
Thicken up your skin. We all have different opinions. Just because someone bad mouths you doesn't mean all is lost. Perhaps they didn't understand your position on the matter. And even if they did that doesn't make them absolutely right. You're young, don't give up your beliefs unless someone PROVES YOU WRONG................and they won't
CC was correct in the assumption that caterpillars are harmful to plants. I think that what we are arguing about is what to do about them. Whether the caterpillars are harming something that is important to food or if they are harmful to ascetics like flowers. I agree that flowers are less important than food. I think food is much more important and that removing them by any means, any harmful entity to this food has much more importance than any ascetic aspect of flowers. We are discussing Bt. Bt is harmless to anything except caterpillars. I also agree that most caterpillars are not fatal to most food source plants. But there are exceptions as I have stated earlier. I think that what we are discussing is a matter of sematics. There are times when Bt is needed. Other times a handpicking is all that is required. I also think that the home gardener needs and must know the difference between a Swallow Tail caterpillar and a Gypsy Moth caterpillar. Without proper knowledge of who is who it doesn't really matter whether Bt is used or not.
