Bugs on tomato plants AND leaf damagepossibly related?

Watch Reply
More
Mark unread Print Skip to new
crabbygardener Durham, NC Jul 01, 2014

My tomato plants have had some problems lately--some leaves have brown or yellow spots, some have holes in them (like something's eating them), and other leaves look brown and dead/dying/wilty. This is mostly on the bottom branches; I trimmed off everything ~1.5 feet from the ground a few weeks ago. I just trimmed off some of the damaged leaves and noticed a bunch of bugs--possibly aphids. I've attached pix of the bugs and the plant damage. Are these in fact aphids? What can I do to mitigate their damage? Insecticidal soap? I'd prefer not to use a synthetic pesticide. Should I be worried about the bugs being vectors of plant diseases? I thought I saw some brown fuzz (maybe) on some of the lower stems, and maybe a white fuzzy blob as well, but I could be wrong.

Thanks!

Thumbnail by crabbygardener Thumbnail by crabbygardener Thumbnail by crabbygardener Thumbnail by crabbygardener Thumbnail by crabbygardener
Post #9883108
Quote
Sequoiadendron4 Lititz, PA(Zone 6b) Jul 02, 2014

I don't think the bugs are aphids. Aphids are usually green in my area and smaller than that. A good way to tell if it's aphids is if you see a bunch of ants on the plants as well. Aphids give off a sugary substance that attracts ants. The ants eat the byproduct of the aphids. I would be more concerned with the browning leaves as that could be fungal. Since it sounds like you have trimmed out a lot of the affected leaves, wait a few days to see if the same symptoms return. If they do, try to get more pictures of the affected leaves and post them up.

Post #9883481
Quote

Post a Reply to this Thread

Please or sign up to post.
Back to Forum Homepage

More Ask-a-Dave's-Gardener Threads

Go to all Ask-a-Dave's-Gardener threads
BACK TO TOP