Eggplant is certainly one of the best looking vegetables we’ve grown. It really likes the heat and doesn’t tolerate cold well, so it’s better to transplant after all threat of frost has passed than starting from seed.
Leaf-footed bugs are approximately 1 inch long, some with a white zigzag pattern on their wings. They have long legs similar to a cricket with an oval shaped body. They are recognizable by their hind legs which look leaf-like. They have piercing mouthparts which probe into plants to suck their juices. This can cause discoloration and damage to the plants.
Scales are super tiny insects that suck the sap from your plants weakening or killing your plant. They secrete a covering over their tiny body that resemble scales.
Mealybugs are a small, white, soft-bodied insect typically found in the garden in warmer climates. Mealybugs will feed on plants by sucking sap out of them causing the leaves to yellow and curl. You may notice the plant getting sticky from the honeydew and this will attract ants as well. This blog post talks about how you can manage mealybugs in your garden with our free From Seed to Spoon mobile app!
Adult stink bugs are green or brown and grow up to ¾” long; they have distinctive shield-shaped bodies. Young stink bugs are smaller, rounder, and more colorful, with highly patterned black, red, white, and green colored bodies.
The Colorado potato beetle is one of the major pests that can affect your crops. Adults are round beetles with orange/yellow and black stripes on their wings. Their head is orange with black spots. If left unchecked, they can destroy your plants in no time!
Flea beetles are the extremely tiny insects that jump when disturbed. Even though these beetles are super small, they can quickly move through the leaves of plants, destroying the foliage in its path and spreading diseases.
Corn earworms (also known as tomato fruitworms) are small caterpillars that vary in color from different shades of brown, yellow, pink, green, and black. The light yellow adult moth lays white, circular eggs on leaves or corn silk in the spring time. The earworm consumes the silk and then moves on to the ear. On other plants, earworms consume stems, leaves, and fruit.
Tomato hornworms are huge caterpillars that are green with a spiky tail and orange spots on the abdomen. These giants are monsterous and can destroy a tomato plant in the course of a day, so it is important to catch them fast!
Cutworms are the caterpillar of a brown or gray night-flying moth. The caterpillars are black, gray, or brown and are about an inch and a half long. These jerks can go through your entire garden of new seedlings extremely quickly! It’s important to watch out for them in your garden and do your best to protect again them. They look like little brown worms, and they like to spin around into circles around the plant, cutting it off at the base.
