Help! I have a new bug on my tomatoes! I've never seen this one. It seems to be eating only the leaves. It's slender, about 3/4 to 1 inch long, thin wasp-like black wings, grey body with thin black stipes around it's thorax. It's head looks just like an ants'. It has no stinger. It leaves black poop-like piles behind when it eats. What is it? I garden strictly organically so as of now I've just been picking them off. Thanks for your help.

-- Jason (AJAMA5@netscape.net), July 29, 2000

Answers

This is a stab in the dark, but could it be a termite??? Go do a search under entomology and you might be able to find what it is. Otherwise, take a few and put them in seperate jars and try all the various organic murder attempts on them and see what works. Good Luck!

-- Doreen (livinginskin@yahoo.com), July 29, 2000.

I have them too. They aren't termites. I've never seen them before and I've been growing tomatoes about 10 years. We've tried hand picking but there are an awful lot of them. I looked in every book in the house, lots of them, and not one picture or description fits. I'll keep at it till I find out what it is and I'll let you know. In a fit of desperation, I sprinkled some Sevin 5% and it seems to have worked. I don't like to use it and I don't resort to it very often. But no little bug is going to deprive me of my August BLT!!!

-- Stephanie Masters (ajsd@gateway.net), August 01, 2000.

Maybe you have tomato hornworms and the wasp thing is really trying to eat them? I have had incidents where the tomato hornworms were still pretty small and wasps would get them, but can't remember what the wasps looked like. I remember they were very dark and smaller than the old red stinging wasps, but were not mud wasps (dirt dobbers) either. Tomato hornworms are the same color as the tomato leaves, of course, and eat primarily leaves, but will also eat green tomatoes. They are very hard to see. I have heard that you can see them better at night with a black light flash light bought for that purpose, but have never tried it.

-- Green (ratdogs10@yahoo.com), August 03, 2000.

Jason, I'm with Green on this one. Waspy type insects can eat leaves, but I really wonder if they aren't the Braconid wasps that parasatize tomato hornworms. I'd be sure to take a sample to the county extension office or nearest land grant college to find out as soon as possible. If the are Braconid wasps, they're your friends. Gerbil

-- Gerbil (ima_gerbil@hotmail.com), August 03, 2000.

I have found out what they are! The culprits are black blister beetles. Tomato hornworms are always a little trouble, except this year....I have found only a few. I made a big effort last year NOT to squish the ones with the bracinoid wasp cocoons on them...I let them munch away. It payed off! Now I have to figure out when to spray my rotenone/pyrethrum combo and kill as few bees as possible. Late in the day?

-- Jason (AJAMA5@netscape.net), August 05, 2000.

Here's a link to a pic of them if anyone else has a problem with them.

http://clay.agr.okstate.edu/alfalfa/images/insects/blisteet.htm

-- Jason (AJAMA5@netscape.net), August 05, 2000.