Tomato Worms and Stink Bugs … EWWWW!

Jun 27th, 2009, 5:32 pmBackyard Gardening0 comments

Just so you know … I DON’T touch tomato worms! It was all I could do to hold my hand this close while I took a pic. This fat guy was too obese to move very fast, anyway, but it still gave me the willies to put my hand so close to him.

I had picked off about two dozen baby tomato worms a couple days before, but I must have missed this guy. Obviously, he went right to work eating and chewing and chomping away at my tomato plants … just LOOK at the size of him! The baby worms were only a half inch long, very skinny, and brown. Apparently, tomato leaves are VERY fattening! And they don’t do much for your coloring either! I found him because he had stripped several limbs completely bare. He was really hard to see because he looks an awful lot like a rolled up leaf.

A few days later, I found another worm, about the same size … and I also found these two tomatoes that had been a meal for someone. I shot an email with this pic off to my mom, and she informed me that the tomato worm was the culprit … grrrr! I’m not liking these guys at all.

The same day, I noticed several stink bugs. I removed them, but over the next few days there were more and more … too many to remove. I read that during dry spells, stink bugs move out from their home in grassy areas and into the garden in search of moisture. We had been without rain for a couple weeks and the high temps were drying everything out. I had to resort to Sevin Dust. I was trying to do without it, but I’m not willing to let our veggies be a bug buffet. I sprinkled a very light dust of the white powder, and the stink bugs immediately took flight!

These tomatoes aren’t from my garden, but I wanted to show you how a tomato looks when it has been stung by stink bugs. Gross, huh? Stink bugs damage the tomato by injecting an enzyme underneath the tomato skin. The enzyme turns a small area of the tomato into liquid so the stink bug can suck the juice out. This process leaves the tomato with a yellowish knot at each sting site.

I haven’t harvested any edible tomatoes from my garden yet. I have had to throw several bug damaged tomatoes out and also a few tomatoes with blossom end rot … but I have my eye on a clump of healthy looking Better Boy tomatoes that will soon be ready for a slice of bread and mayo! Mmm, Mmm … I LOVE fresh tomato sandwiches!