Tuta Absoluta (Tomato Leafminer)
Tuta absoluta
high risk
insect
Overview
An invasive South American leafminer that arrived in Spain in 2006 and within 6 years had spread across the entire Mediterranean, North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia. Now considered the most devastating pest of tomato globally after it established in Africa, causing losses of 80–100% in unprotected crops.
Adult moths are 6–7 mm, silvery grey with black spots on the forewings and fringed hindwings. Larvae are pale green or pinkish, 7–9 mm, with a dark head capsule and pink dorsal stripe. Mining galleries in leaves are a key identifying feature.
Prevention Strategies
- •Install 50-mesh screens on all greenhouse openings
- •Use pheromone traps for early detection and mass trapping
- •Remove and destroy infested plant material outside the field
- •Inspect transplant seedlings carefully for larvae before planting
- •Avoid growing tomato year-round in same greenhouse
Control Methods
- •Chlorantraniliprole, spinosad, or emamectin benzoate (early instar larvae)
- •Bacillus thuringiensis var. kurstaki biopesticide
- •Biological control: Nesidiocoris tenuis predatory bug, Trichogramma achaeae parasitoid
- •Pheromone mating disruption in enclosed greenhouse settings
- •Rotate insecticide classes strictly to prevent resistance
Interesting Facts
- •Spread from Spain to the entire Mediterranean basin in just 3 years — one of the fastest agricultural pest invasions recorded
- •A single female can lay 250–300 eggs in her lifetime
- •Resistance to pyrethroids and organophosphates has developed across the Mediterranean within 10 years
- •In some Kenyan and Ethiopian growing areas, complete crop failure is now common without intensive management