massacre in my tomato patch

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guosui Bakersfield, CA Jun 07, 2009

I asked a question about using Dr. Earth Insect Spray a while ago and nobody responded, so it occurred to me to list Dr. Earth's ingredients to see if anyone knows if it could possibly save my decimated tomato plants. (Nobody answered about what to do if my problem is grasshoppers and not hornworms in Beginner Vegetables either, but maybe grasshoppers don't eat tomato blossoms. ) Anyway, Dr. Earth is 98.70% water, coconut oil, mineral oil, wintergreen oil, safflower oil, and molasses, and 1.30 % rosemary oil, cinnamon oil, clove oil, and garlic extract. It seems to give some relief to my bug-eaten persimmon tree.

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ecrane3 Dublin, CA(Zone 9a) Jun 07, 2009

I'm not sure where you posted your previous question--was it on a different forum? I don't remember seeing it on this one. Anyway, I would read the label, pesticides generally list the types of insects they are effective against--if it doesn't list grasshoppers or hornworms then it probably doesn't kill them. I'm not sure that most typical insecticide sprays are going to be effective against those particular pests though. Hornworms you can hand pick, or else they're caterpillars so Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis...similar to what's in mosquito dunks) ought to work. I should also note that if hornworms were the problem, you ought to be able to see them on the plants. Grasshoppers you'd have to get lucky and catch them in the act, but hornworms don't move very fast and would tend to stay on the plants. So if you haven't seen them, that's probably not what the problem is. If you're looking for an organic way to control grasshoppers, there's a biological control sold under the Semaspore name (maybe others as well) that is effective against them and won't kill other insects. I'm not sure how fast it works, but if grasshoppers are a yearly issue for you it might be worth looking into. On the non-organic side, I believe that Sevin works on them as well but make sure you read the directions to see if it's OK to use on veggies.

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guosui Bakersfield, CA Jun 09, 2009

Thanks for the info re Semaspore. My original question was on Beginner Vegetables:
"Do grasshoppers eat tomto blossoms?" I think nobody answered because this must be an uncommon situation, but I did see a grasshopper on a tomato plant and I've even seen lots of semicircular holes on my rose leaves. I examined my tomato plants very carefully and didn't see any hornworms, so that's why circumstantial evidence (I mean the grasshopper's mandibles were not engaged) points to this insect perp. I'm not into anything nonorganic, so the Semaspore sounds like my best bet.

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