On 29 May 2004 21:17:30 GMT, (RCD2951) wrote:

Hi,

I live in San Antonio, TX, and need some advice on dealing with "Blood
Suckers/AssasinBugs". Every time I plant tomatoes, these agressive stinky (and
potentially biting) insects tend to congregate on my tomatoe plants, usually
stinging & ruining the fruit. What can i do to eliminate these pesty insects.
i understand they are considered beneficial to some, but I dislike them
intensely.

Regards

John Pearson


John,

You might want to check your nomenclature. Assassin bugs are
predators and do not eat or otherwise tomatoes other than to remove
bothersome insects. Since you mention that they "stink", my guess is
that you have one of the several kinds of "stinkbugs" that do indeed
damage tomatoes, The site: http://insects.tamu.edu/fieldguide/ will
help you to identify the insect and gives a number of links/pointers
for control measures ranging from organic through IPM to nuclear war.

Personally, I have found that controlling the eggs helps the most.
They seem to die with a treatment or two of Neem oil. That is a
little tricky later in the year as the Neem oil can cause leaf burn.

Hope that this helps some.

cheers.