How To Protect Your Tomato Plants From Pests
There are many insect pests that are commonly found on tomatoes. Getting them under control is very important and can range from spraying hose water or picking them using your hands. Here are the lists of those insect pests:
The Hornworm is the larval stage of a five-spotted hawk moth. They are sometimes called the hummingbird moth. These caterpillars can become as large as four or five inches. They are very distinctive, for they possess a curved ‘horn’ on their back and their color is a very bright green with eight v-shaped marks running on its body.
They certainly look imposing, although these insects are not harmful to humans. They’re not poisonous wither and don’t have teeth or stingers. Therefore, it is generally safe to pluck these pests off using your hands. In fact, picking them up is the best way to get rid of them.
You’ll easily know if there are hornworms around because of their black, squarish droppings that are easily seen. Once you’ll see the droppings, just look around and you will see them right away, hiding just within the foliage.
Since they’re colored green, they blend very well with leaves, so you might have to look for them very carefully. These bugs eat an awful lot that leaves of a plant are easily stripped off very fast. The more they are there, the faster you’ll lose your crop, so you should be very keen on removing them.
The Aphids have several different colors, depending on which species they belong. They suck nutrients from leaves then possibly transmit viruses to your tomato plants. To keep them under control, spray them with a solution of liquid dish soap and water, or just knock the aphids off with fairly strong water from the hose. You should exercise caution though, so not to break the stems.
Aphids feed through the underside part of new growth leaves. So if you’re spraying a repellent, whether those organic or chemical types, spray it right under its leaves to make contact with those ample aphids right underneath.
There are other alternatives in removing the aphids. Examples are the neem oil, garlic, and ladybugs. If possible, capture some of those adult ladybugs, and put many of these bugs in the tomato garden. They will eventually reproduce, and you’ll start to see ladybug larvae, a voracious eater of aphids.
Stinkbugs are colored brown, green or pale. But it seems that the brown types are the most common bugs seen on tomatoes. All these bugs are shield-shaped insects that are part of a “true bug” family.
These insects can cause severe damage towards the tomato’s fruit by piercing its skin just like a mosquito would do on animals. They drink from the tomato, and cause damage on that area where they pierced the fruit.
This damage ruins the fruit’s appearance. Although it is still safe to eat them, however the fruits will look very ugly and not as appetizing, so it is better to keep these bugs away from your plants.