What bug is this on my tomato plant?
Plant Parent
I grew a few tomato plants from seed on my 4th floor deck and I just noticed that one of them is covered in these tiny bugs. Not sure when it started, but I noticed two days ago. They’re mostly green, maybe a few brown or black, and white shell looking things. I moved it away from my other plants, but what’s going on?
Darryl
Your tomato plant has a pretty severe aphid infestation. Since your plant does not yet have tomatoes, then you could try a few things:
1) Physical removal
– Cutting off heavily infested foliage
– Spraying them with a jet of water
2) Insecticidal soap spray like this.
They will not all die in one treatment so you will have to repeat all of the above steps on a regular basis – check the plant every few days.
If you feel it’s not worth the effort, then throwing away the plant is a perfectly sensible thing to do as it will prevent further spreading – aphids can easily spread to other plants!
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