It is well known as a serious pest of tomato crops in Europe, Africa, western Asia and South and Central America, with larvae causing up to 100% loss if not effectively controlled.

[2]: 240 Laboratory rearing is abnormally difficult because T. absoluta requires maternal leaf contact with a suitable host plant for oviposition.

[2]: 240–241 This moth was first known as a tomato pest in many South American countries (and Easter Island)[6]: 1330  and was recognized to threaten cultivation in Europe.

[2]: 242, Fig1a  Starting in 2009, seeing the results of inaction in Europe, the North American Plant Protection Organization, the United States, California, Florida, Canada, and Australia began inspections and preparation for quarantines.

[citation needed] It is now severely infested in Myanmar, especially in tropical tomato growing areas such as Mandalay, Sagaing, Monywa.

[18] As of 2017[update] USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service assumed T. absoluta to be present in most of sub-Saharan Africa.

[2]: 242, Fig1a There is a high risk of further invasion northward into more of Central America, and into the United States (a certainty, if it reaches as far as Mexico);[2]: 243  all suitable areas of sub-Saharan Africa[2]: 242 [2]: 242 [2]: 250  and southern Asia; and Australia and New Zealand.

[2]: 243 This rapid spread across Mediterranean Europe was due to insufficient coordinated plant protection activity against invasive agricultural pests.

[2]: 241 In 2014 the People's Republic of China's Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences' Department of Biological Invasions began surveillance and treatment[20] of their own[2]: Sup7, Fig1 [2]: Sup8, Fig2 [21] and neighboring countries (including India and Pakistan) that already have the pest.

[22] Newer compounds such as spinosad,[23] imidacloprid[citation needed], and Bacillus thuringiensis[24] have demonstrated some efficacy in controlling European outbreaks of this moth.

Experiments have revealed some promising agents of biological pest control for this moth, including Nabis pseudoferus, a species of damsel bug,[25] Bacillus thuringiensis,[25][6]: 1330 : 1332  and Beauveria bassiana.

[6]: 1332 The sex pheromone for T. absoluta has been identified by researchers at Cornell University and has been found to be highly attractive to male moths.

[27] Pheromone lures are used extensively throughout Europe, South America, North Africa and the Middle East for the monitoring and mass-trapping of T. absoluta.

[26] The combined use of pheromones as well as specific light frequency proved to be effective in suppressing the T. absoluta population and keeping it within the economic threshold as it disclosed by Russell IPM in a United Kingdom patent.

The biotype of this European invasion already carried at least 4 resistance mutations from a Chilean[14][6]: 1331 : 1332–3 : 1334  parental population: 3 in the relevant sodium channel for pyrethroids,[14] including L1014F;[6]: 1332, T1 : 1333  and 1 (A201S) in the enzyme targeted by organophosphates.

[19] Many modes of action have fallen in efficacy in South America and Europe, closely in tandem with popularity of use of those MoAs/insecticides: Abamectin, cartap, indoxacarb, chitin biosynthesis inhibitors, spinosad, and the diamides.

)[33][6]: 1338 Resistance to indoxacarb (IRAC group 22A) has appeared due to the mutations F1845Y and V1848I, but is not yet reported for another voltage-dependent sodium channel blocker, metafumizone (22B).

)[6]: 1332, T1 : 1335 Cartap, a nicotinic acetylcholine receptor channel blocker (IRAC group 14), began to show low to moderate efficacy decline in South America starting in 2000, and increasing through at least 2016.