Photo by Drees. Photo by Drees. The adult moth is small and brownish in color. Females lay eggs on the undersides of leaves in an erratic pattern on the upper half of the plant. The life cycle is rather short, with 7 or more generations produced per year under greenhouse conditions within a 4 to 5 month period.
Caterpillars have chewing mouthparts.
Moths have siphoning mouthparts. Tomato pinworms are a major pest of greenhouse grown tomatoes, but will also infest field grown tomatoes, potatoes and eggplant. Caterpillars can be picked from infested plants. Adults can be reared from larvae or pupae, collected in pheromone traps or blacklight traps. Female moths lay greenish-white eggs singly, mainly on the stems, squares and bolls of cotton.