Tomato Pest and Diseases

A Guide On Tomato Pest and Diseases

A tomato pest attack will destroy the health and beauty of your tomato plants within a few days. It is wise to first know the enemies of your tomato plant and then fight back by following some easy control measures.

Recognize Some Major Tomato Plant Pests before they become a problem.

Tomato Fruitworm

The early instars are cream or yellowish green with few markings and the late instars are green, reddish or brown with pale stripes and scattered black spots. They are up to 44 mm long, moderately hairy and have 3 pairs of legs and 5 pairs of prolegs. They chew holes in fruits and buds.

Control

- You can use Bt or Bacillus thuringiensis to control tomato fruitworm organically
- You can also treat the tomato plants with Sevin 5% dust. Use it every 5 to 7 days when the fruit begins to set. Once the pests get inside, the fruit pesticide will have little or no effect.

Wireworms

This is another common tomato pest. Adult wireworms lay eggs around the grass root of tomato plants. The larvae generally takes one week to hatch. The fully developed wireworm larvae are 1.2 to 4 cm long and are yellow, white or darker shades of brown in color. Do not confuse millipedes with wireworms. Millipedes have numerous pairs of legs and coil up when bothered. Wireworms have three pairs of legs near the front of the body and they do not coil up.

Control

- Scrutinize the fields prior to planting and don’t plant tomato plants on soil, which are susceptible to wireworms.

Blister Beetle

These tomato plant pests are slender and ½ to ¾ inches long with gray, black or striped body. They feed on the leaves of tomato plants but the larvae eat grasshopper’s eggs and are therefore advantageous.

Control

- You can hand pick them but always wear gloves as these pests extrude a caustic fluid in self-defense.

- You can chemically control these tomato plant pests with pyrethrins and 5% Sevin.

Stink Bugs

A stinkbug is a dangerous tomato pest. The adult stinkbugs are up to 5/8inch long and 3 inch wide of green, brown and black in color with or without stripes. The nymphs are smaller but otherwise resemble the adults. These tomato pests discharge a foul odour. They weaken the plants by sucking sap from the plants and the fruits thus causing malformation of buds and young fruits.

Control

- Controlling weeds in the garden area can prevent growth of some species of stinkbugs

- Organic or biological control includes dusting with sabadilla

- For chemical control you can use sevin 5% dust but do not use within 5 days of harvest

Other common tomato pests are aphids, spider mites, flee beetles, cabbage looper, and greenhouse whitefly.

Some Common Tomato Plant Diseases

Late Blight

Late blight is a common fungal tomato disease and is most common under cool moist conditions. In this disease, irregular greenish black water soaked areas can be seen on older leaves. When the fruit is infected, it remains firm but becomes rough with greasy greenish brown patches.

Control

- Apply fungicide sprays

Bacterial Speck And Spot

These two are bacteria borne tomato diseases. In these diseases, small dark spots appear on the fruit and black spots appear on the leaves with a yellow border .

Control

- Use a fungicide seed protectant.
- If the disease appears in the greenhouse or your garden, apply suitable fungicide plus copper sprays. To increase efficacy pre mix the spray for 90 minutes or longer

Tomato Mosaic Virus

In this viral tomato disease, light and dark green patches appear on the leaves of the plant and sometimes on the green fruit. The ripening of the fruits can be uneven with internal brown streaks.

Control

- Follow sanitation measures strictly while working with plants

- Do not unnecessarily touch the plants because this highly infectious virus spreads simply by touching

So apply the suitable control measures and keep tomato pest problem at bay.