The *BIG* question is...
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How do I keep those pesky tomato beetles from last year from coming back this year? I am planning on planting them in the new section of the garden this year, but what of the old section?? Are there likely to be eggs in the dirt to worry about? And if there are, what is a good organic pest control that works ? I have tried things that either helped or didn’t work at all, but I want something that will irradicate the little buggers.
Here is one of them, I think. This is front view, but that is what they looked like. This one just ate the surface flesh, did not burrow.
The other is most certainly a fruit borer, but I can’t find any pics of it. They are very small, shiny (wet looking), black and small white horozontal stripes.Thanks guys!
0 thumbs up!Posted over 2 years ago -
Nasty little buggers, huh?
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0 thumbs up!Posted over 2 years ago
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Terrible. They would infest a tomato by the hundreds as soon as it was ripe…I had to catch them just a bit green and bring them in to ripen…and you can imagine how difficult that was. :(
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0 thumbs up!Posted over 2 years ago
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I have seen these before, never had a problem (but that’s not saying much I haven’t been gardening long) but my nieghbors had them all over their pumpkin patch. Or at least they looked very similar. I did some looking and it appears to be a green stink bug I hope I did the link right, or you can wikipedia search it, but wiki doesn’t have much of a suggestion to rid the infestation. I read some had good results with Sevin (i know i know) and something called diatamaceous earth Hope you find something that helps.
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0 thumbs up!Posted over 2 years ago
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Good thing you said i know i know lol. I’ll check it out! Thanks! The green thing has me baffled though, because mine were black with thin white horzontal stripes….aaaand I said that already. Sorry, lol :D Thanks for sharing that.
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0 thumbs up!Posted over 2 years ago
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lol well I looked up some pictures on Bing and they included some black and white bugs…a younger version of the beetle I think.
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0 thumbs up!Posted over 2 years ago
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@ kris04- You were referring to the Shield shaped beetle that I showed you. Not a stink bug either. :) The one that caused the most trouble was the black one though.
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0 thumbs up!Posted over 2 years ago
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the black ones are elongated. Not shield shaped.
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0 thumbs up!Posted over 2 years ago
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The black one sounds like a Pill Bug, especially since you’re in the Midwest. They love munching on Tomatoes.
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0 thumbs up!Posted over 2 years ago
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hotwired- nope not them. I had those 2 years ago. But these do the same thing, they are just smooth and shiny, and pretty small, smaller than Pill Bugs.
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0 thumbs up!Posted over 2 years ago
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You may want to check out Integrated Pest Management (IPM) techniques
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0 thumbs up!Posted over 2 years ago
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A lot of interesting reading in there Fhaith. Thanks for posting. :)
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0 thumbs up!Posted over 2 years ago
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Sounds like cucumber beetles. Raking over the soil to expose eggs when the weather is still harsh is a good practice. It won’t necessarily prevent them, but it will help. Floating row covers go a long way towards keeping them off the plants. Juggling planting schedules helps too. If they have no food, they will leave. Around here our main time frame for these beetles is mid-July, when we are getting the first crop of tomatoes. If you can plant later, you may miss the first flush, and the will leave your garden without any food.
Look for eggs on the underside of leaves in the fall, and destroy them by squishing. Hand picking the beetles doesn’t work though, as they just drop off the leaf/fruit when you touch them, and they can fly. French marigolds help, interplant with the tomatoes and cucumbers. As do onions. I fight them like crazy too. Nothing gets rid of them completely, but all of these things together keep it under control. I consider loosing one or two tomatoes a month to pests perfectly acceptable.
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0 thumbs up!Posted over 2 years ago
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Well these look the closest….on mine the stripes are horozontal though, and it may be even a little smaller. I like the idea of disturbing the eggs. I am interested in the exposure of the eggs to cold….I am wondering what else I can do. Just throwing out ideas, I have no idea what these do to the soil, etc, but could I put epsom salts on the garden after disturbing the soil, and remember, no question is too silly? Does anyone have any natural ideas that they have tried, which worked to kill beetles?
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0 thumbs up!Posted over 2 years ago
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I had these last year – first time I had seen them. They vastly preferred my butternut squash to the tomatoes (planted within 5 feet of each other). So maybe you could plant a trap crop of squash somewhere else to draw them off?
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0 thumbs up!Posted over 2 years ago
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INteresting suggestion, thanks! :)
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0 thumbs up!Posted over 2 years ago
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can i trim tomato plant for fall fruit
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0 thumbs up!Posted 9 months ago
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