It all started when I pulled up in my driveway after work. I noticed that my beautiful cherry tomato plant had been gnawed down to nubs! I just knew the deer had got to them Grrrr...
Then I went in to the garden to pick beans awhile later and I noticed some weird black spots on the yard long beans.
I took some close up pictures to see if I could tell what they were.
I'm not sure, but based on what I've read on some other blogs, I think these may be black fly.
I sprayed them down with soapy water because I read some blogs that said they sprayed their plants down with them. I don't really know if it will help or not, but I figured I would give it a try.
I have no idea what the ants were doing. They were around all of the places that there were those tiny black spots.
As I was mulling over the issues with the beans while I watered the garden I jumped back startled when I saw these giant monsters!
I've never had hornworm caterpillars on my own tomato plants before, but I had seen them on my sister-in-law's plants. They were the size of my middle finger. I pulled six of them off and dropped them into a buck of soapy water. YUK! EW!
Well, it wasn't the deer that ate my tomato plant after all.
Those are aphids - in the UK they call them black fly. I think your soapy water solution is probably good - I've only had the occasional issue with them, so can't really comment on any other remedies. The ants are "farming" the aphids - they basically take care of them so that they can feast on the honeydew that the aphids secrete.
ReplyDeleteThank you Margaret! I appreciate your input. I had not noticed aphids on my plants before, but the soapy water seems to help. That's pretty neat about the ants farming them. They are industrious little insects.
DeleteYes those hornworms can do a lot of damage very quickly, and six of them can pretty much defoliate a tomato plant. If you see one with white eggs attached to its backside, leave it be. It has been paralyzed by a wasp that then attached its eggs to the worm. The eggs will hatch, feed on the worm and make more wasps.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the information on the wasps. That's pretty interesting. There weren't any of the eggs on the hornworms that I picked off. If I ever get any again, I hope that the wasps will notice them before I have to deal with them.
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