Back away from the tomatoes!!

About 2 weeks ago I was at some friends' home, looking at his jungle of tomatoes.  When I recognized this pesky long legged insect on his tomatoes.  He continued to flick them off, but I realized I had seen the same ugly brown bugs on mine too.  So I began investigating to make sure they were "bad" before I began to attack them. 

Sure enough, they are "bad" (the reason I use quotes, is that some people sum up all insects/bugs in the garden as "bad".  When there are actually a ton of insects we need to help protect and grow our plants.  Many commercial products from big box stores will annihilate all insects harmful AND beneficial to the garden).  This little bugger's name is "Leaffooted Bug"  You can check out good information and pictures of them at different life stages here.

So I got on the phone and called my two favorite organic gardening centers:  Gaddy's here in Pflugerville is one of them.  I wrote them off when we first moved here as a little hardware store.  Turns out, they are a major carrier of organic products and good quality fruit and vegetable plants in my area.  However, this time they didn't answer the phone.  So I proceeded to call The Natural Gardener owned by John Dromgoole (a true Austin hippie).  They are great for all things organic.  John has a weekend gardening show that we used to listen to religiously, it's an incredible amount of gardening information.  The program runs on KLBJ on Saturdays and Sundays. 

Anywhoooooo, the Natural Gardener people gave me two methods for getting rid of these insects.  The woman on the phone started out by saying, "well you know there's always the old fashioned organic pest removal method."  To which I said, "Oh ya?  What's that?"  Turns out, you can just pull the big bugs off the tomatoes and dunk them in soapy water.  She recommended about a tablespoon of dish soap per 1/2 gallon.  She gave me permission to get out my big yellow dish gloves, cause, "those suckers will make anybody squeamish."  The other recommendation?  Diatomaceous Earth .  I haven't tried that yet, but if they get really out of hand, I might.

So I started a war in my tomato plants.  And at first, I was really hesitant to grab them.  They're big and they fly up in your face.  But after a few rounds with the gloves, I'm to the point that I know how to grab them by the back leg and dunk them in soapy water.  I didn't want to tell my daughter that I was "killing" them when she asked.  So I simply explained that I was "catching bad bugs".  Now when we head out in the evenings to pick, she sees me grab the bucket and exclaims, "more bad, bad bugs mommy."

They're actually easier to grab than I thought.  And now that I used this website I have found many in there "toddler" and "teenage" stages (website's words, not mine).  Be careful not to mistake them with the beneficial "Assassin" bug.  The main difference is these Leaffooted Bugs hang out in groups, where as the Assassin is a lonesome dove (how's that for witty commentary, Sameer?) Which hopefully means I've gotten them before they can lay more eggs.  Once I started my all out war with this Leaffooted Bug, my husband recognized them.  He is pretty sure they are the creatures that single handily killed 2 of our white Yuccas last year.  They were completely dead on the inside (these guys suck out the juice of various vegetation and leave their enzyme, which causes all kinds of problems.) 

I also planted some Zinnias and placed a pottery plate filled with water to attract some beneficial insects to the area, and hopefully chow on these Leaffooted Bugs in there nymph or larvae stages, if I don't get them. 

(The wine bottle?  A great gadget, the Julien's told us about from Sur la Table, called the Plant Nanny.  It's a Terra cotta watering spike that uses old wine bottles to hold the water.  Releases water as your garden is dry.)

Check out this 2008 video from Central Texas Gardener, featuring John Dromgoole talking about beneficial insects and how to attract them to your garden.



According to John, Mockingbirds are one of the best pest control birds around.  So, I make sure to thank them each time I see them pooping on our swing set.

Good luck on your gardening adventures!