Something is munching on my leaves

[squirrel789]

Hello all,

Something has taken a liking to munching on the leaves of my Better boy, Cherokee Purple, and especially a little tumbler tom I have in a hanging basket.

This is totally a newbie question, as I'm sure you folks have seen it many times before, but what is doing this? Most importantly, what can I do to stop it? It's only a leaf or two on each plant, so far.

I looked at the underside and a super tiny white thing that seemed to not move and after picking it off I still couldn't see it well enough see what it was. I assume a mite of some kind perhaps?

I have some Safer Soap Insect Spray, but have read elsewhere on the web that it can be toxic to some tomatoes. I've read through a bunch of posts here that say people use it, some won't, some wash it off afterwards, but there seems to be little consensus so I thought I'd ask again as some of the threads were older. Thanks for info you might have on using this product.

I'd like to stop these pesky munchers before they spread as the damage is limited at the moment.

Any help or advice is very much appreciated!

I took a pic of the top and the underside of each leaf. The first 2 pics are the Better Boy, and last 2 are the Tumblers, which also have some yellow spotting on them, but only on these eaten leaves. Any thoughts on that?

That poor Tumbler plant was accidentally hanging in exactly the wrong spot, just below a clogged area in my gutter and got super drenched and beaten down by some heavy rain run-off from the roof before I realized it and fixed the problem.

Thanks again!

[Jeanus]

Looks like flea beetle damage. They look and jump like fleas. I just kept checking my plants and squishing them, when they didn't jump.

[squirrel789]

Originally Posted by Jeanus

Looks like flea beetle damage. They look and jump like fleas. I just kept checking my plants and squishing them, when they didn't jump.

Hmm, I hadn't heard of those before. However, the holes do look just like pics of flea beetle damage after asking google about them. Thanks for the input!

I check my plants all the time, and haven't seen any bugs, except for one 12 gal smaller container with a Sun Gold plant in it, luckily far away from my main troughs, full of fungus gnats - but I'm already dealing with that using BTI (Mosquito Bits).

That said, I know I won't likely catch most pests in the act of eating my garden, but since the troughs are just outside my back door, and I'm a bit of an insomniac who loves his garden, I check on these guys a lot at different times of the day and night. I'll have to start looking more closely to try see if I can find something jumping or crawling around.

In case it makes any difference, the hanging basket tumblers (where the most damage is) are in some MG organic choice potting mix (not soil or moisture control). I don't prefer MG bagged stuff, but the tumblers were just sort of an afterthought and my own mix was already in use elsewhere. The Better Boy is in my main tomato trough with my own soil-less mix.

Thanks again for any help!

[noinwi]

Flea beetles can move fast! Start looking for them before you reach the plants...unless there are a lot of them, they'll be gone by the time you move your first leaf to take a look.
They love nasturtiums, by the way, so the nasties make a good trap crop. You can use Safer soap on them but it must make contact so you have to be quick. I've used Safer soap for years and never noticed any damage to my tomatoes or other plants.

[squirrel789]

OK, so I went outside tonight to see if I could find any flea beetles armed with very bright patio lights and a good flashlight. I saw nothing jumping as i approached the plants or checked them over. I very closely examined every plant, looking thoroughly on and under leaves, on the tops, stems, flower clusters, and even dug around in the mulch a bit.

Unfortunately, all I have is a camera phone. I got pics as clear and close as possible with the camera I had, so sorry some aren't super clear

I did find a variety of insects though, including one that I think might be a flea beetle. It was just sitting on top of a leaf and let me take pics like it didn't care. Can anyone possibly ID it? The first 4 pics are the exact same bug, as I tried to get different angles and clearer pics to help with identification.

If it's not a flea beetle, I found and took pics of any other insects I could find on my plants, and will post those as well in case someone might be able to tell what they are or if they might be harmful and require action. I'd like to get a hold on this problem early if anyone knows what these bugs are and their potential to harm my tomato plants.

Sorry, I know it's a lot of pics, but if anyone could help me identify even 1 of these insects it would be greatly appreciated. Also, it was nighttime, so that may make a difference as to types of insects were out and about when I was pest hunting

For the most part, I only found 1 of each of these insects, even searching all my plants for what ended up being over an hour (there's only 12 plants total).

Thanks for any info that anyone can provide! I am completely ignorant in this department.

[ginger2778]

1,2,3,4,&9 are all instars of an immature stinkbug family insect. 8 is aphids in various stages, 10 may also be but not sure. The others I havent got a clue, possibly an assasin bug( good guy) in 5. These are all just fairly educated guesses. Great website is bugwood.org.

[squirrel789]

Thanks Ginger! I appreciate the response.

If I know what pests I am dealing with, I can research the best methods.

Thanks!

[Mojave]

You certainly don't want stinkbugs running amuck in your garden. I had major problems with them last year.

[squirrel789]

So far I have only seen the single tiny stink bug, but I'm sure there must be more hiding around somewhere. It seems being vigilant and manual removal is the most often recommended method. I don't have that many plants and I spend time with them daily, so that hopefully won't turn into a major problem.

What concerns me now is that I seem to have tiny green aphids on many of the plant leaves (like in pic #8 above). Only, last night I could only find 2 in hours of serious hunting on every part of the plant, but this morning they seemed to be on around 30% of the leaves out of all 8 plants, but only singly or in sometimes in pairs - no major infestations yet.

I gave the bugs on the plants a good dose of Safer insecticidal soap spray early this morning, and will repeat in a couple days as directed on the spray bottle. I hope it works... My plants are still young and the foliage is not that dense yet, making is easy to inspect each and every branch and leaf, so I was very thorough. I plan to get some DE tomorrow to dust all over the container, but I have reservations about spraying/dusting all over my plant leaves as some have advised. Since it's essentially microscopic razer-sharp pieces, I wonder how this in't bad for the plant's leaves and the delicate new shoots. Maybe it's just the lesser of two evils? Any advice or personal experience with DE duted directly onto your plants would be appreciated.

Any advice on aphid treatment or stories of how you (hopefully) beat them in your garden would also be very helpful!

I think a war has just begun in my tomato garden!

If nothing else, maybe the DE and insecticidal soap can keep those pests in check we can at least share the harvest... I'd rather not nuke with anything stronger than neem oil if I can help it, and would prefer even that only as a last resort.

Thanks for all your responses!

[Mojave]

Lady beetles are a great way to control aphids.

[Dewayne mater]

Aphids are one of the few bugs that can be fairly easily controlled without any toxins. Some say spraying them with jets of water to wash them off works. I've found they don't like being sprayed with soapy water. They also don't like Neem oil. And, if you can get some lady bugs, put out some nectar so they will stick around and just about dusk, remove them from the cool environment and put them out on your plants. A few of them can wipe out an arm of aphids in a short time. They'll probably eat some other bad guys too.

I would probably employee some spraying hard water at them because I'll bet you've got some eggs laid on your plants from various insects and you may be able to dislodge them.

Kill that stink bug! Watch for larvae. They are awful.

[squirrel789]

Thanks for the advice! I was planing to get some food-grade DE and Neem oil, but maybe I will try the ladybugs first. I'm pretty sure the DE/Neem will kill the ladybugs too, if i'm not mistaken. I just assumed ladybugs would just fly away, but I didn't realize there were methods I could use to keep them around, like the nectar you mentioned.

I'm much rather the lady bugs do my dirty work for me!

I'll have to give it some thought. I truly appreciate the suggestions!