tomato leaf footed bug

Say goodbye.

Goodbye to the 10-foot tall tomato plants.
Goodbye to the 6 varieties of Heirloom tomatoes grown from seed, lovingly raised in the greenhouse last winter.
Goodbye to the lush plants around the tomatoes, including giant okra, parsley, jalapeno peppers and red bell peppers.
Goodbye to my towering jungle.
All because of HIM! And his hundreds and hundreds of cousins and uncles and nephews and babies.

Everywhere.

And I mean everywhere.

So one of my “guys” came over yesterday and ripped the guts out of my whole garden. And me, for that matter. It was hard to watch.
So, with the truck full of my formerly beautiful plants, he drove off with what was the promise of my fall tomato crop — up until a week ago.

And I was left to squash and squeeze and stomp on literally 150 of those #$%^&*#&* bugs — just on the ground! And climbing on the empty tomato cages. I killed about 25 more today. I will check again tomorrow, but I think they are all gone or dead.

There are only 2 things left in the garden — the strawberries and the basil, which weren’t infested and don’t seem to have drawn them. My fingers are crossed for them. But I am diligently checking them several times a day.

My goal: To eradicate the *&$#@%*&# bugs so that I can plant new teeny tiny tomato plants this weekend for a fall crop. We are blessed with two seasons here and the time to plant is NOW. I figure if a few bugs show back up, I can handle killing them on a few couple inch-high plants! The jungle, not so much.

I WAS planning on an amazing crop from my huge existing plants. (Did I mention that? sigh.)

Ok — I am not over it. But it’s gone. So, now I am making a list:

some compost
some new mulch
a few new marigolds (fat lot of good THEY did keeping the bad bugs out!)

Tomorrow is a new day.

Help. Please.

I have 7 mature, healthy tomato plants…

Well, some of them are healthy. But one bed – 4 plants up to 10 feet tall and amazing — is infested with leaf footed bugs. I have sprayed insecticidal soap and Neem oil on them about 3 times. I have killed a bunch of them.

This morning I have spent HOURS cutting away the dead foliage and squashing bugs by hand and spraying and stomping on them. I am on a rampage.

But I am afraid I cannot possibly get them all … and I don’t think the Neem really stops their growth.

I am considering cutting them back by 1/2, trying to keep attacking them for about a week, and then, if they are still everywhere – I will rip (GASP) them out, and plant new ones. The time to plant fall tomatoes in Central Texas is right now, so I can’t wait too long.

Sad thing is these are my babies grown from see in the greenhouse and they have many blooms and it’s gonna make me cry to pull them out.

Have you got a leaf footed bug killing secret weapon?

Someone moved in while I was gone!

I rounded the corner to check the garden after 9 days away and what to my wondering eyes should appear?

But bare tomato stalks for about the top foot of the plant closest to the gate.

Aaaack!

So I put on my investigator’s cap and start inspecting. I see nothing on the leaves of the first few plants. Nothing anywhere near the stripped stalks. (Of course, they’ve EATEN all of that and have moved on! DUH!)

Then I peered into the depths of the middle plant — a Hank heirloom tomato, where I find, yep, you guessed it, leaf footed bugs. Ugh.

And nasty. They creep me out.

This is a terrible pictures, but you get the idea — I’m not going back out in the heat to get a portrait.

So I use the last of the organic stuff I have sitting there for tomato bugs and come in to make another bottle of insecticidal soap. I spray the whole bottle and find lots of them.

The question is, will it kill them? My guess is not, and I may need some Neem oil since these are babies and that will stop their growth at least.
And right below the stripped stalks, I find all this frass — which is what they call insect poop. (I just call it poop. Seems appropriate.)

Then I am wondering, do I have two pests? This seems like big poop for those little bugs, but what do I really know about bug poop? Answer: Zilch.

So if you know who left this poop, please tell me!

Tomorrow I will make a trip to the Natural Gardener and see what I can get to get rid of those dang leaf footed bugs. They decimated several of my plants last August and they are NOT getting these.
And look what I left lying back in the veggie garden. And yes, it did rain 2 beautiful inches while we were gone. So, yes, they are nicely rusted. Again. I give up. I am a bad tool mom.
Here’s another friend I found had moved into my garden while I was gone! I think I may know who escorted him back there!
And look, (well, YOU can’t tell anything, so you can quit looking!) my fence gate is fixed. My Daddy came over while we were gone and fixed the separating gate frame and fixed my latch. I can now actually open it with one hand without having to lift that heavy sucker and hurt my elbow. Thanks, Daddy!

Other that the deadly bugs, my fabulous son took GREAT care of everything. I’ll have to check it all out tomorrow when I water in the morning.

It’s nice to be home, even if it is 103!