I am hoping someone can help me identify what is going on with my tomatoes. These are covered in bird netting and are deep within the plant. Have lost about 15 tomatoes already. The tomatoes have holes and then rot. I cut many of them open and cannot find a worm of any type. All I have seen is some maggot looking larvae. I have never seen this sort of damage.

Thanks in advance for any help.

https://imgur.com/a/gyNS8jx

It may be stink bugs.

You may read up on calcium deficiency in your soil. I have a metric shat-ton of stink bugs and have never confirmed any damage done by them.

https://ipm.ucanr.edu/agriculture/tomato/stink-bugs/#gsc.tab=0

Take a picture of the other side also

Maybe bottom end rot from yhe rain. That starts it but i have never seen going up into the stem like that

Not stink bugs they do not eat they just sting and your tomotoe will have little orange type spots all over them

Thanks for the responses all. I went up to our local mom and pop garden center and discussed this with them at lunch today. A guy who runs a small vegetable farm was actually in there. The consensus was this is insect damage related. They also brought up that stink bugs could be causing this. However, I am with yall. I have always had a bunch of them and never had any issues except orange spots. That is the only thing I see on the plants right now, though.

I think this is two different causes.

The holes look like what I see when birds get mine. They'll peck holes that look just like that.

The rot on the stem looks to be something different. I was gonna suggest rot as a result of overwatering (or in this case lots of rain).

All, I posted a couple of more images. Most of my leaves look very good, but have some damage there as well.

https://imgur.com/a/PuwLuDl

If anyone has any additional ideas, please let me know. Let's see if the Seven stops this.

Oh, sorry Maddiedou, I meant to address your comment about blossom end rot. The bottoms of all these tomatoes look fine.

What's your grasshopper situation look like?

Have you cut one of the tomatoes open to see if there is a larvae inside one of the holes?

The same Heliothis species that eats the tips off of your corn ears loves them some tomatoes...

Brazos, I am in town, so basically 0 on the grasshoppers. Sunray - yes, I have cut 10-15 of them open. No worms of any type. I have seen some very small white larvae crawling around in there. Similar to maggots, but very tiny.

Edit: This just really has me stumped. I have had a vegetable garden all my life and worked with both my grandma's as a kid in the garden. I have seen and know how to manage alot of garden problems. I have never run across this, though.

BrazosDog02 said:

---

What's your grasshopper situation look like?

---

You may have noticed what I have. In a month or so, we could be in for some serious hopper populations. The nymphs are everywhere.

Have you noticed any signs of hornworms, i.e. bare stems or large frass (poop droppings)? I noticed a few plants of mine have considerable defoliation and similar looking holes in my tomatoes. After looking for the frass, I found 3 large hornworms who are the likely culprits.

oklaunion said:

---

BrazosDog02 said:

---

What's your grasshopper situation look like?

---

You may have noticed what I have. In a month or so, we could be in for some serious hopper populations. The nymphs are everywhere.

---

I could survive on grasshoppers if Jesus came back tomorrow and I wasn't asked to go with Him. I got a ton of them. The holes in the middle of the leaves are what have me thinking grasshoppers.

I think what I'd do is hit those plants with a pyrethrum based insecticide in the late late evening. Then I'd dissolve two tablespoons of epsom salt in a gallon of water and water those tomatoes with that and then see where we are in a couple of weeks. I'd hit the insecticide twice a week until I saw results.

I like to ID bugs first but at some point I can't spend a week figuring it out while they eat my plants either.

Bonfire97 said:

---

All, I posted a couple of more images. Most of my leaves look very good, but have some damage there as well.

https://imgur.com/a/PuwLuDl

If anyone has any additional ideas, please let me know. Let's see if the Seven stops this.

Oh, sorry Maddiedou, I meant to address your comment about blossom end rot. The bottoms of all these tomatoes look fine.

---

That doesn't look like Bossom end rot. That would be on the bottom away from the stem scar. Pinworm or fruitworm likely (leaf damage does not match but seems severe). Cut the bad tomato in half and see if there's a void throughout the cavity, that's pinworm, use abamectin if so. Spinosad works for fruitworm.