Hi all,

I found holes in the leaves and caterpillar droppings around my tomatoes so I sprayed them with BT about a week ago. No idea if it worked since I was only able to find a couple of the caterpillars before spraying, but when I when I was looking again, I found these guys. Does anyone know what they are and how to get rid of them? I live around Sacramento.

Thanks,
Matt

They look like the nymphs of either leaf-footed bugs or assassin bugs. The pictures are not clear enough to differentiate. A guess would be that since there are several of them they are more likely leaf-footed bugs in which case you could spray them directly with insecticidal soap. Assassin bugs, on the other hand, are "good guys". Since you can see the actual bugs you may want to Google for pictures of both nymphs to differentiate.

Thank you, I'll have a look online and see if I can identify between the two. They congregated on a tomato more exposed today, so I was able to get a better photo.

I'd say they are leaf-footed bugs from the look of their legs in the new picture. You can see the wider part on their back legs that gives them the "leaf" part of their name.

I see. They also do appear to be sucking on the plants, and it looks like the plants are suffering for it. When I read up on them, it sounded like some people thought their impact on most plants was so minimal that it wasn't necessary to eliminate them. Is this your experience? If so, I need to figure out why else my plants are struggling.

Thanks,
Matt

Luckily I haven't had to deal with them where I am, but I would go after them now with insecticidal soap while they're still young and more susceptible to it. From what I understand their nuisance value can be variable but they're much more easily controlled at the young nymph stage they're at now.

OK, appreciate the advice. I sprayed them with insecticidal soap directly yesterday and most of them seem to have survived it, so looks like I'll need to try something stronger.

Hi Matt,

Until you find something stronger, you might try just blasting them off of your tomatoes with a strong stream of water of some sort. Some hose nozzles can adjust to a strong stream. It needs to be strong enough to knock them off, but not so strong as to damage your tomatoes. Some insects are not very good at finding their way back, and the water jet technique can work better than you might expect. The "Bug Blaster" is a product that works on that principle.

http://www.hiddenvalleynaturea...

ZM (not associated with any product or vendor mentioned or linked)