7 Tomato Plant Pests That Are Eating Your Harvest—and How to Get Rid of Them
Don’t let these bugs beat you to your haul!
Growing tomatoes in your backyard is such a rewarding way to freshen up your summer meals. Whenever a recipe calls for the sweet-tart ingredient, you can pull from your harvest to pile onto salads, stuff in sandwiches, or dice up in dips. Homegrown tomatoes can be more flavorful than store-bought varieties, but growing them also comes with challenges, including blossom end rot, cracking fruit, wilting leaves, and insect pests.
While tomato foliage and fruit is what makes them such beautiful garden additions, these are qualities that also make them enticing to insects. If you notice chewed-up leaves, curling or yellowing foliage, sticky spots, tiny bugs, or little droppings, these are all signs that pests could be nibbling on your precious plant. Luckily, by inspecting the plant closely, you can help identify the culprit and limit further damage, leaving more tomato recipes.
Not sure what’s eating your tomato plants? Here are some common pests to watch for, along with ways to manage them.
Keep your tomato plants in tip-top shape:
Hornworms
Hornworms are large, green caterpillars that can quickly strip leaves from tomato plants. If you can’t see these pests, look for missing leaves or dark droppings, also called frass. Since these pests are big enough to pick up, they’re easy to control: Just grab them with a gloved hand and drop them in soapy water.
Flea Beetles
Known for their impressive speed and jumping ability, flea beetles are small insects that leave small, round holes in tomato leaves, especially on young plants. Since these bugs like hiding out in weeds and garden debris, eliminating them starts by removing their shelter. To give new tomato crops an extra buffer, protect them with row covers.
Stink Bugs
You’ve probably seen stink bugs climbing across your windows or holing up in your attic, but these pests also love slurping down juices from tomato plants. Check ripening fruit for discolored spots, cloudy areas, or rough patches beneath the skin. Whenever you notice these tomato pests, handpick them and toss them in soapy water.
Tomato Fruitworms
Another destructive caterpillar, tomato fruitworms nestle inside developing fruit and leave behind tiny holes and dark, sunken areas. If you suspect these tomato pests are wreaking havoc on your harvest, pick up the bugs, remove the affected fruit, and spray the plant every week with a natural soil bacterium.
Whiteflies
When whiteflies suck sap from tomato leaves, they cause the foliage to yellow, weaken, or develop sticky residue or black sooty mold. You can tell your tomato plant has whiteflies when a swarm of tiny white insects emerges after you gently shake the crop. A strong spray of water, plus insecticidal soap or horticultural oil if needed, can help blast these bugs away.
Aphids
These tiny, soft-bodied pests typically congregate on the undersides of leaves and around new growth. If you detect curled or yellowing leaves with sticky residue, aphids might be munching on your harvest. Spraying the plant with water can knock these minuscule bugs off the surface, but for larger infestations, you might want to use insecticidal soap.
Spider Mites
When these drought-tolerant, heat-loving tomato pests nibble on the undersides of leaves, you’ll spot small white or yellow speckles, bronzed foliage, and fine webbing. Dousing the leaves in water will help eliminate visible bugs, while consistently hydrating the plant will keep the pests away. If the problem persists, insecticidal soap or horticultural oil.
Lilly Blomquist is the associate editor at The Pioneer Woman, where she writes lifestyle stories across a wide range of topics—including news, entertainment, holidays, food, and more.
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