I have an award
winning question for you. Ready? Do you know what food festival is known as the
World’s Biggest Food Fight? The
answer is La Tomatina. Since 1945
this annual festival is held in Spain, in the town of Bunol.
Thousands of people
from all corners of the world come every year to take part in a major tomato
fight, where 20,000 tomato warriors (limited number
since 2013) use more than one hundred metric tons of over-ripe tomatoes to turn
this town red.
Those of you who
knew the answer probably wonder what the prize was. Well, it’s this post and
the topic that starts from here. How to identify tomato pests and control them?
I’ll try to give you some essential information on tomato pests.
Pests that Love Your Tomatoes More Than They Should
If you want to beat your enemy, you first
have to identify it. The most frequent insects and pests that bother my beautiful tomatoes are whiteflies, aphids, tomato
cutworms, flea beetles and hornworms. My advice is that you make a garden list
of most wanted tomato offenders and kindly ask them to stop annoying your
tomatoes.
How to Ask Pests to Leave Your Tomatoes Alone
Or you can take extra measures to
show the pests that you’re not kidding. Use preventive measures and clear away
weeds and debris around your crisp, juicy buddies. I also suggest the use of yellow
sticky-traps (to capture adult beetles), row covers (for covering young plants)
and beneficial nematodes (they feed on the larvae and pupae).
I sometimes spray the pests with
water, handpick the pests, or use organic herbicides. But my favourite option is to release
natural predators such as lacewings, ladybugs and whitefly parasites to take
care of intruders. After all, you know the proverb – my enemy’s enemy is my friend. I agree in this case.
How do you take care of your tomato
friends? Share your experiences with me!
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