[Aim]  To improve environmentally-friendly prevention and control methods for the tomato leaf miner Tuta absoluta, a major invasive pest of tomato crops. [Methods]  The oviposition preferences of the tomato leaf miner for 4 tomato cultivars were evaluated using the natural field infection method, and differences in secondary metabolites among the different cultivars were determined with GC-MS. The behavioral responses of adult tomato leaf miners to hehydroascorbate were examined using the "supplemental nutrition" method. Finally, the field natural infection method was used to evaluate the effect of the external application of hehydroascorbate on oviposition preferences. [Results]  There were significant differences in the preference of the tomato leaf miner for each of the 4 tomato cultivars. Preference for the TWHSN variety was significantly stronger than for TM80, with 24.84 and 7.22 eggs laid on each cultivar, respectively, after 48 h. There were significant differences in the secondary metabolites of the TWHSN and TM80 varieties; the main difference was hehydroascorbate, the amount of which was significantly higher in TM80 and JHDJW than in TWHSN and XXN. Adding hehydroascorbate to the supplemental food fed to adult tomato leafminers reduced its palatability a dose-dependent manner. Adding 0.004 mg/mL of hehydroascorbate to supplemental food reduced the number of tomato leafminers feeding on supplemental food by 92.00%. Spraying hehydroascorbate on tomato plants generally reduced the number of eggs laid on all 4 varieties, but there was a between-subject effect (P < 0.05) and an interaction (P < 0.05) between hehydroascorbate concentration and tomato cultivar. However, hehydroascorbate concentration was a more significant factor (F = 19.92) than tomato cultivar (F = 4.29). The most rapid decline in the number of eggs laid as the hehydroascorbate concentration increased was on TWHSN, with a slope K of the fitted trend line of ﹣20.93. The slowest decline in the number of eggs laid was on TM80, with a slope K of the fitted trend line of ﹣8.67. [Conclusion]  Hehydroascorbate could be a key substance reducing the attractiveness of tomato plants to the tomato leaf miner for oviposition.