I have these all over my beefmaster tomatoes. The plants look very healthy although the flowers seem to be falling off and dying after they have been open for a few days. The rest of my tomato plants have tomatoes on them but I expect that different types will fruit at different times so I am not worrying about it. The question is will these insects cause problems?
[img]https://farm5.static.flickr.com/4070/4705515785_eacd906601_b.jpg[/img]
[img]https://farm5.static.flickr.com/4051/4706158636_ba73e79ea8_b.jpg[/img]
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Yes those are aphids. Most plants carry a bit of an aphid load. I don't worry until the top growth is covered with them, but if I see a bunch I will squish them. A strong water stream from the hose knockes them off too. You need a bit of a population to keep the predatory hoverfly and ladybugs around.
high chances are if your garden is a healthy ecosystem ladybugs will come to deal with them. they just need to find them first. usually the first week of May we get aphids on most all of our plants. then a week later the ladybugs come, another week and there's not an aphid to be seen anywhere for the rest of the year.
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