HELP! THEY'RE KILLING MY TOMATO PLANTS!!!

[TomatoNut95]

HELP! This stupid bugs, whatever they are, are killing my young tomato plants!! I sprayed with insectical soap but it didn't help! These bugs are on ALL of the tomato plants I planted for the fall! My poor Splash of Cream, Silvery Fir tree and Red Velvet!!!

[applestar]

Take some photos of the UNDERSIDE of those leaves — the white speckle/stippling and the dark concentrated spots reminds me of sucking insect damage. I would say there is a heavy infestation (ones I’m familiar are white flies and mites). I can never tell what thrips damage looks like.

Those winged insects may not be the culprit — they look like predatory wasps to me — and may be there to help with the situation.

[imafan26]

I also see some cigar shaped green bugs as well as the white ones. I have not seen that kind of frass with white flies and usually if you disturb the plant a cloud of white flies will be flying about. The frass looks like aphids or thrips. If you can get a hand lens and look at the end of the cigar shaped green bugs if they have the cornicles. If the cornicles are present then they are likely to be aphids. Aphids are more pear shaped and less cigar shaped so by their gross shape they could be thrips. Except for pepper thrips, I have not really seen anything except thrip damage since they are so tiny.

I have a lot of thrip issues because I have thrip magnets like roses, orchids, gardenia, and plumeria. I can see the adult thrips and their damage on the flowers. I do get thrip and mite damage on the leaves, but both are difficult to control and I am unwilling to get rid of their favorite hosts. Instead, I live with some damage and instead plant insectary plants to attract predators. I use mostly water to control them by jetting the undersides of leaves every time I water. I can spray my ornamentals, but I usually don't do that. If I want to keep my orchid for a show, I have to bring it inside before the bud breaks.
Healthy plants and a strong garden patrol is the best defense.

Thrips and mites become more of a problem with hot dry weather and a good heavy rain will usually solve the problem.

In either case, it looks like the damage is too far gone to try to save the plant. Keeping a heavily infested plant will just put other plants at risk since thrips and mites have a wide host range.

https://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7429.html

[TomatoNut95]

All of my tomato plants are infested, and I've gotta try and save them. If I lose these new varieties this year, I won't be able to offer it for sale next year and I'll have to wait a whole year to re-try and taste-test before offering this variety for sale.

I bought some Diatomaceous Earth, would that kill thrips?

[TomatoNut95]

Something's wrong with my piece of trash phone. Browser keeps shutting down. I have pictures of the underside of the leaves but when I got them uploaded, the forum just shuts down. Don't know what's wrong. I hate technology. I will see if I can post the pics from my desktop at work tomorrow, 'cause my phone is bring a jerk.

[applestar]

You have a long season so if you can keep these alive, and nurse them back to health, they might start growing again once it’s cooler. But it’s difficult to do.

Start by cutting off worst affected leaves from bottom up. Always leave the topmost growth even if it’s just a single baby leaf or the plant might decide to give up. If there is a sucker starting, then you can too the stem just above to shorten the plant and relieve the “lift pressure”

You might thin the fruits for now — if one matures the plant may decide it has succeeded in completing its biological imperative, on the other hand, one fruit with seeds could be all you need?

Really should identify the pest to know for sure what to use to treat them.

[TomatoNut95]

Hey! It worked! My phone never ceases to surprise me.....or make me mad...

[TomatoNut95]

If you need more pics, I can take more tomorrow.

The plants are just beginning to bud, no fruits yet. It's not seeds I'm after; I need fruits to test taste. Also, because I'm creating a tomato scrapbook, I need the fruits and foliage to be healthy appearing for photos to also show customers.

Another problem is my cream peas are infested with flea beetles!! INFESTATIONS AFTER INFESTATIONS. What kills flea beetles? I'll get pics of them to.

[applestar]

Ouch. That’s tough. Yeah this looks like mites to me. Do you have a microscope or loupe? You need at least x60 to x100 to see them clearly. Mites can be hard to get rid of. But there are lots of info available now since it’s a common problem in cannabis growing.

First time I ever had to deal with them, I used my kids’ pink lighted loupe x10 in combination with iPhone 4 cam at max zoom.


...also imafan26 was right - there must be aphids as well — I see a couple of white cast off/molted aphid skin in the first photo, and a blurry light green aphid.

[applestar]

Also, if this is russet mites, then infestation is not as critical as I thought because I don’t see the severe russetting on the plants, but I’m beginning to wonder those familiar seeming dark spots might actually be the naked-eye visible Two-spotted spider mites. I had that on my winter tomatoes and first thing I noticed was dark colored tiny spots.

Subject: identify this tomato disease >> Tomato Russet Mites

I'm seeing TRM on some of my Winter Indoor Tomatoes

But not a severe infestation (yet) -- but some of my plants are losing leaves one by one from the bottom -- only thing is they don't get totally russeted as I would expect but just dry up.

I looked under our (basically a toy) digital microscope and I only see a mite here, a mite there,... On the entire dried up leaf. Not sure what exactly is going on.

image.jpg

— oops didn’t realize it was attachment you can see it if you follow link

If you look at the top right photo, there are brown "something" sprinkled all over. They seem to be covering the entire surface. I tried to get some close ups, but I can't seem to get any good, focused image.

If two-spotted spider mites, end stage infestation will have matted webbing under leaves and leaf node crotches. I see a strand of webbing in one of the underleaf photos you posted.

...more links...
Subject: Unidentified tomato desease -- maybe russet mites?
Subject: 2013-14 WHO'LL BE GROWING WINTER TOMATOES INSIDE THIS YEAR?

[applestar]

This looks like a good reference — and apparently it’s spelled twospotted with no hyphen.

I grabbed one of the many photos on the page with representative photo of infestation that reminds me of yours —

twospotted spider mite - Tetranychus urticae Koch
https://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/orn ... d_mite.htm



... (I was wrong about what those spots represent, though somewhat correct that they are indications of twospotted mite damage)

When twospotted spider mites remove the sap, the mesophyll tissue collapses and a small chlorotic spot forms at each feeding site.

[TomatoNut95]

I can't thank everyone enough for helping me!

Ok, I don't have an ipad, but my smartphone takes awesome closeups,...which is why I've abandoned my old camera.... Using my phone, I took lots of close ups through my magnifying glass and loupe, I'll get them all posted from my work desktop this afternoon; it goes faster to upload pics on the forum than my phone. Oh, and as for the webs you noticed, those are plain little spiders(orb weavers I think) which have been spinning their webs all over everywhere under the greenhouse frame. I keep knocking them down 'cause they're in my way.

[TomatoNut95]

Ok, here's all the pics. Insects are circled. Looks like my Silvery Fir Tree is the worst off. Included in my pics are the flea beetles on the peas.

[applestar]

I still think the winged insect is a predatory wasp — probably after the aphids

Parasitic Wasps & Aphids | National Geographic

[TomatoNut95]

Ok, but are the aphids causing the black spots on the leaves? Should I still trim the plants? How to I kill the flea beetles? I have to be careful what I spray or dust I've got chickens nearby. So that means so Sevin Dust. I already tried insecticidal soap, but that stuff doesn't work. I have Diatomaceous Earth. Would that work?

[applestar]

Did you read the twospotted spider mite link? I still think that is the main culprit, so see what you can use to control from the recommendations. Have you been blasting with sprays of water from the hose, which would be the first remedy I would start with? This is a method also often mentioned by imafan26 and Gary350.

I don’t have personal experience using any product against mites in the garden because I’m always more concerned about killing off the Garden Patrol. In my Winter Indoor Garden, I have found releasing predatory mites to be the best preventative control, even though they are expensive. But once infestation has taken hold, you do need to reduce the pest mite population first.

I have used a home-made mixture of safflower oil, baking soda, and a tiny bit of liquid soap in water to keep cyclamen and russet mites from spreading on a control group of tomato plants when I experimented, but I don’t know if this solution would work against twospotted spider mites since the article mentions that they are resistant to chemical control. (Knock on wood, I only had the one instance of twospotted spider mite infestation — at that time, before I learned about the oil-baking soda-soap mixture, I desperately tried repeatedly using a soapy water and rinse regimen, which I could see was removing hordes of mites, but lost the plant anyway). There are miticides that are approved for organic use — they should indicate if they are effective against different species of mites.

The home made mixture I used would definitely also kill aphids and probably control the flea beetles as well, since the oil and soap should suffocate them. Remember that any oil-based spray can burn the plants if not used properly — again, I’m not sure of the limitations when used outside — I always made sure not to use when the plants would be in sunlight and I was using in the Winter Garden when temperatures were never higher than 70°F.

[TomatoNut95]

I'll try blasting with the water hose first. Thanks!!

[TomatoNut95]

If that doesn't work, I'll try the canola oil. I'm such a dummy, I should've thought about oil on soft-bodied pests.

[TomatoNut95]

Ok, so I went out, got the garden hose and was just begining to spray my Splash of Cream, when I noticed all these missing leaves..... AAAARRRRRRGGGHHHHH!!!!!!
After controlling my temper tantrum, I removed the hornworm and crushed it to bits. I continued to spray all four infested plants. However, I plan on getting some cooking oil just in case the water blast failed.