Greetings and question about potato aphids

[davefromwestchester]

Hi all,

We wanted to introduce ourselves, Sophie and David from Hastings on Hudson, NY, have a small vegetable garden on the side of our house, growing tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, carrots, and herbs...if we are lucky and/or the Gods are with us. And so far so good, the weather's been great, and everything looks lush and thriving...fingers crossed.

We have a quick question about the tomato plants. They are all doing very well, 1 foot to 1.5 feet high, but today I noticed a small reddish/purple-ish aphid looking insect on the bottom of the leaves. Apparently, these are potato aphids? And I've been reading that they can be bad for the growth of the plants...Should I spray? Chemicals or Soap spray or antother recommendation? Lady Bugs? Just curious what you all think works best.

Thanks, and I look forward to hearing your feedback and to learning much from this site.

Thanks!

David and Soph

[applestar]

I'm almost positive what you found is a juvie/nymph form of Colorado Potato Beetle. Catch and squish. Or drop into a cup of soapy water if you are squeamish. Turn over every leaf and look for cluster of orange eggs.

If you are growing eggplants, be sure to look under every leaf of those as well.

The beetles are tricky. Yesterday, I was checking the eggplants I planted in my flowerbed (I'm edible landscaping look and eggplants add really interesting color). Not finding any eggs, I was mulching it little better and bumped the stem... and an adult Striped Colorado Potato Beetle fell down from *somewhere* (I swear I did not see it when I was turning over the leaves). It was promptly stomped on.

Edit: Oh wait! I didn't realize this thread is in Tomato Forum. Now I'm not sure what you found. I thought you were talking about potatoes....

[TZ -OH6]

Most of my tomato aphids are red. I think the color is from the plant...the same reason my fingernail gets red from pinching off suckers. The aphids are green on my peppers.

The tomato plant can take a pretty heavy load of aphids, and the aphids feed juvenile hoverfly and ladybugs so leaving them on at some density helps increase their predators, so I've never considered spraying. You can hose them off with a strong stream of water or do what I do, just squash them to bring the numbers down.

[davefromwestchester]

Most of my tomato aphids are red. I think the color is from the plant...the same reason my fingernail gets red from pinching off suckers. The aphids are green on my peppers.

The tomato plant can take a pretty heavy load of aphids, and the aphids feed juvenile hoverfly and ladybugs so leaving them on at some density helps increase their predators, so I've never considered spraying. You can hose them off with a strong stream of water or do what I do, just squash them to bring the numbers down.

Thanks for all of your feedback I went with the Lady Bug solution because I thought it would be a kind of cool science-y thing to do with my egg-head daughter, who is totally digging the process. The Lady Bugs are wild. 1000s of them. KEep them cool and hibernating in the fridge...dump a bunch under plants ever other day for a few weeks. Should handle the prb. Thanks again!