Saturday, July 11, 2009

Flee Away!

Whoa! The tomato leaves are looking not so good. Brownish spots and shot holes. Must be quite a good sized insect to be causing all of this damage. On the first couple of looks I missed the bug doing this damage.

This is the critter responsible for all that! The insect is hard to see...looks like a small black fleck on the leaf and can hop from one leaf to another before you can get your eyes focused. It is a flea beetle and a major nuisance. Last year I didn't have any on my tomatoes, but I had shiny green ones on my oenothera. This must be a cousin to the green ones because it is shiny black. Their large hind legs enable them to jump so they are hard to capture...it does make for a good eye hand coordination task though. The horticulture agent here says she removes hers by using a small dustbuster but that is a little weird. I already have the neighbors in an uproar over my compost bin. If I start vacuuming the plants they will send out the guys with the white jackets! Mom

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