Mealy Bugs on Tomatoes

March 4, 2009 Ben General

How many mealy bugs can you fit on a tomato stalk?

I was not sure myself until I found this branch in my garden over the weekend!

5 Responses to “Mealy Bugs on Tomatoes”

• catalangardener says:

  March 6, 2009 at 10:27 pm

  Now that’s impressive!
• Online Shopping says:

  March 30, 2009 at 7:36 pm

  OMG! Are the white stuffs all bugs?That’s a lot!May I know what harm can they do to your plants?
• Anne @ Mobility Scooter says:

  March 31, 2009 at 1:51 am

  You are not alone. I have had a dozen of tomatoes before but sad to say all were inflicted with this “bugs”. I searched the internet for answers but all were for toxic solution which i can’t bear to use. I applied the detergent soap watering solution but still to no avail. Right now my tomatoes were nowhere to be found. All eaten even the stalks were not spared.
• Kyra says:

  July 15, 2009 at 8:26 am

  Hi!
  I was reading your coments about the lovely picture of mealybugs. I work for a company that loves to help people figure out the least toxic way to control garden pests. Our goal is to help people transition from the conventional pesticide options toward more sustainable methods. Please feel free to contact me anytime. [email protected]

  Thanks,
  Kyra
• Matt says:

  March 5, 2010 at 8:15 am

  Hey Ben! I was browsing through old posts on my blog and saw your comment on my post about espalier trees. You mentioned you were giving it a go with a lemon tree. How did it work out for you?

  Also, I noticed your predator deficiency in the photos above. Haha. My own solution to this problem actually comes from Australia, courtesy of PRI. It’s funny how a piece of knowledge can travel across the world just to end up practically where it started.

  Anyways, my advice to everyone is to plant a perennial flower bed near your garden. This will encourage predatory insects to come to your garden and out-compete your pests.

  Alternatively, I recall a wise old man telling me that infestations of that magnitude are often caused by excessive amounts of nitrogen in the plants. (I’m fuzzy on the details, but I believe the excessive nitrogen causes the plant to emit an odor which attracts the insects). If you’re using compost on your plants, make sure you’re balancing the brown and green materials in your compost. Too many kitchen scraps and the like will make your compost very nitrogen heavy. Tomatoes are pretty heavy nitrogen feeders, but if infestation is this bad, I’d also look for fertilizers that are lighter on the nitrogen.

  Hopefully one of these options will help the readers here.

  Now that I’ve rediscovered your blog, I’ll be keeping an eye on it.