Tomato Bugs

Few foods are as delicious as ripe, freshly picked garden tomatoes.

However, there are numerous tomato bugs that have the same appetite for your juicy produce! We want to help you in identifying and eradicating these uninvited guests to your garden party. For example, you can control insects such as the tomato worm by companion planting the herb borage with your tomatoes.

Types of tomato bugs

Aphids

Adults are pear shaped insects with two short tubes projecting backward from the tip of the abdomen. They have long antennae and are variously colored dusty gray, pink, green, or black. They may be wingless or have transparent wings. Aphids pierce leaves and suck plant sap. Feeding causes distorted leaves, buds, and flowers. Some species spread viruses as they feed. Large numbers of aphids are killed by native predators and parasites. Attract these to the garden by planting pollen and nectar plants.

Tomato Hornworm

These large caterpillars blend in very well with foliage and can do serious damage to leaves. Adults are gray, narrow winged moths with rows of orange dots along their abdomens. The green larvae are up to 4 ½ inches long with a single horn on their tail and eight diagonal white marks along sides.

Larvae chew holes in leaves and may strip plants entirely. To control: Handpick caterpillars and drop them into a bucket of soapy water. Spray BTK and rotary-till the garden in fall or early spring to destroy pupae. Release lacewings or ladybugs to attack eggs.

Best organic pesticides

Diatomaceous earth is an effective remedy against many bugs. It is made from finely ground skeletons of small, fossilized one celled sea creatures called diatoms. These ancient creatures surrounded themselves with tiny shells that they constructed from silica extracted from the waters. The microscopic shells deposited on the seafloor are collected into deposits sometimes thousands of feet deep.

This earth contains microscopic needles of silica which puncture the bugs causing them to die from dehydration. The earth is so finely milled that it poses no harm to either humans or animals. But when insects ingest these particles, it interferes with their breathing, digestion, and reproduction processes.

Diatomaceous earth does not hurt earthworms because they are structurally different from bugs on tomatoes. Many gardeners use this organic pesticide as a dusting agent to gain effective control against moths, tomato hornworm, mites, slugs, nematodes, snails, thrip, flies, and other tomato bugs.

Hot Pepper

Hot red peppers are among the most useful plants in the garden as organic pesticides. Use the slim cayenne peppers, grind and mix with water and a little powdered soap to make a liquid to spray plants infested with tomato bugs like aphids. Dried hot peppers can be sprinkled on tomato plants being attacked by caterpillars.

Although, if you notice long green hornworms do not be too quick to spray. Look for the presence of parasitic wasps on the tomato hornworms by their noticeable white cocoons. These predators may do all the necessary work for you in ridding your plants of harmful tomato bugs.

Preventive methods

Maintaining healthy plants is your number one defense in preventing insect attacks. Plant garlic bulbs between your tomato plants to protect them from red spider mites. Tomatoes have some build in defenses to ward off unwanted tomato bugs. Tomato leaves have an active ingredient called solanine, a volatile alkaloid which was used at one time as an agricultural insecticide. In fact, the defense odor sprayed by skunks is neutralized by tomato juice!

Go to Identifying-Garden-Pests from Tomato Bugs