Should you kill tomato worms? I’ll answer that with a loud NO! The tomato worm is a garden pest and you should never kill them unless they are acting out of your control. They will continue to come back, no matter how much trouble you are causing for yourself and your other plants. They are a problem not only to your garden but the whole neighborhood.
The most common way that people get a tomato worm is by snipping them off the vine. You can do this at home as well as in a greenhouse or on an indoor plant such as peppers. This is not recommended when growing tomatoes in a greenhouse, so before you do, make sure you have checked the soil to make sure it is not contaminated with earthworms. If it is then you need to dig the hole a little deeper, or else your plant could suffer.
If you have tried and failed to dig your tomato plant up from the ground, then you should take the chance and kill the tomato worm. You will need a jar or container with an airtight lid to put your plant in. Now, there are several ways you can do this, but I would recommend putting them in reverse so that air flow is best.
One way is to plant tomatoes next to each other in a tomato wormhole and then cover them. The tomato plant will overheat and drown in water. You will probably need to water the soil every day. You can add a little bit of gypsum to help the soil retain moisture.
Another method is to put the tomato plant in the ground in the sun, and water them daily. You will probably need to water the soil a couple times a day, just enough to keep the soil damp. It is best if you keep the tomato plants dark green in the sunlight. If you grow them in the shade they will often burn and yellow.
Another good way to prevent rotting in the soil of the tomato plant, is to mulch the tomato plants with straw or garden shreddeds. Just remember to use a straw that is fine for the plant. A tomato worm cannot eat a tomato leaf because it is not designed to be eaten. Straw will keep the soil moist, and the roots of the tomato plant will stay nice and moist, which is exactly what they need.
My favorite way is to plant tomatoes in large numbers in a large terracotta pot, and just let them go. They should go pretty fast, and then you just spread out the soil a little and water them when they are done growing. I like to put some tomato plants in the ground under the tomato shed, so that the soil is not so full of all the dirt. You should however check the plant regularly to make sure there are no broken or roots sticking out where the soil has been compacted. If your tomato plant does get a hole in the soil and then freezes, just remove the hole and dig up the plant about an inch or two later.
So, if you see your tomato plant have yellow spots and rotting parts, the best thing you can do is to kill the tomato worms. This is probably the most difficult part of caring for your tomato plant. The worms can cause a lot of problems for you and your plant, so if you have any fear of getting sick or thinking that your plant might get hurt badly, then you should probably kill the tomato worms. However, if you take good care of your tomato plants and spread out the soil to make it moist, and feed your plant good nutrition, you should be able to have a tasty and healthy tomato crop all year round.