 hello everyone are you frustrated with tomatoes getting eaten up with insect pests don't worry let's talk about some common insect pests of tomatoes today but before we get into the pests let's talk about some tomato facts tomato plants have five growth stages seedling, vegetative, flowering, food formation and mature fruiting seedling and fruiting stages are most vulnerable to insect attack they must be protected insect pests have two types of mouth parts chewing mouth parts liking beetles and caterpillars piercing and sucking mouth parts like in lead-footed bugs now you're ready to be an insect detective let's talk about some early season insect pests of tomatoes flea beetles chew small round holes all over the leaves and can kill small tomato transplants have piercing sucking mouth parts their feeding causes leaf deformation and virus transmission if it's a teardrop shaped insects that suck plant sap and produce honeydew resulting in sooty mold which is a fungus look for these insects under the leaves and control before they increase rapidly they ever wondered what causes those leaves to be missing and the fruits with holes those are caused by caterpillars here are some common caterpillars beet armyworms have green plump body with a pair of black spots behind the head fall armyworms have a v-shaped mark on head and dark body yellow striped armyworms have a dark body also with yellow stripes on the sides and black triangular markings so then armyworms have a dark body and ready brown head they have long white stripes broken up by dark spots remember armyworms eggs are laid in masses like this look for egg masses on soft terminal leaves continuing some more caterpillars fruit worms make nice round holes with head dug inside the fruit horn worms have a harmless horn on the abdomen they feed on leaves stems or entire fruits loopers like this one have missing legs so they move in a looping manner these are often late season pests in Alabama they lay single eggs scattered on plant terminals look for early feeding injury on leaves can you tell what these are these are the adults and larvae of the Colorado potato beetle these are major defoliators of plants in gardens they're also infamous for insecticide resistance let's talk about insects that cause quality loss brown sting bugs have piercing sucking mouth parts feeding causes extensive fluid fruit discoloration leaf red bugs have leaf like expansion on their hind legs they aggregate in large numbers on fruits sting bug and leaf foot bugs cause discolored distesting fruits that rot fast on storage and finally let's talk about some occasional casts white flies feed on plant sap staying underside of leaves they look like dust particles or dust cloud when they're disturbed spalamites are not insects they increase in dry weather or with insecticide overuse look for them under the leaves remember these final details scout every week or most more often for both pests and beneficial insects look for insect over and under the leaves and also plant bases here are some integrated pest management tactics plant and harvest timely maintain healthy plants get good variety use pest exclusion fabric on netting to stop insects use conventional or organic insecticides if needed watch our other ipm videos in the beginning form of playlist for detailed control measures thank you for watching don't forget to download and install the farming basics phone app for contacting extension for pest pictures and more install today