FEATURE: Identify 3 Common Tomato Pests and Know What To Do About Them
Image: Tomato Dirt
Left unchecked, tomato pests can inflict lots of damage to your tomato plants and even destroy them.
But there’s good news. If you keep a close watch, you can identify pests as soon as they begin their dirty work and treat them before things get out of hand.
Look for these 3 of the most common symptoms that your crop has been attacked by tomato pests – and steps to take to get rid of them.
Holes in leaves: Flea beetles are hungry and invasive. They munch on tomato leaves. Keep them at bay with preventative measures: clear away extra debris and set up yellow sticky traps.
Yellowing, curled leaves: Look for concentrations of tiny dense clusters of aphids on the stems, new growth, or undersides of leaves. Apply insecticidal soap to disperse aphids.
Honeydew: This sticky, white residue on tomato leaves and stems mark a visit from aphids and white flies. Use horticultural oil to treat plants. This is another place, too, to set up yellow sticky traps to keep pests at bay.