I was poking around my tomato plants yesterday and noticed this one leaf was absolutely loaded with some sort of insect eggs. I'm not sure what they are, so I don't know if I should leave it, remove and toss the leaf in the trash, or if I need to burn it?
I'm in Central Minnesota, US.
by stephanieoutside
23 Comments
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Latent enemies, scores of ‘em. Toss the whole leaf or wherever you find ‘em.
A lot of the eggs on tomato plants will produce tomato plant eating larva. It’s sad though because a lot of their natural habitats have been destroyed by humans. Something I did was planted a sacrificial tomato plant away from my garden. I’d put branches and eggs there.
That’s is neat and it’s a lot of eggs.
There are both damaging and beneficial insects that may have chosen your plant. Examples are stink bugs (harmful) or assassin bugs (helpful). It’s not so clear which these might be to me based on the eggs.
If it was my plant – I’d probably be curious enough to take the leaf and put it in a sealed jar in a cool/safe location to see what hatches and then make a decision.
Could be stink bugs
I’d burn them all
I’m impressed, that’s really neat work. I particularly like how they covered the whole tip. For that alone I would take the leaf and move it elsewhere.
Don’t know what eggs they are, but I have to say this is a great post. There’s a clear picture, you told us which plant you were talking about, you showed the size of the suspect, and posted where you are. Thank you!!
When you see a large cluster of eggs, usually foe. This is because predating creatures (friends) usually spread their eggs around so they don’t compete for food, and they lay less eggs. Foes usually don’t care, and will gladly lay 100 eggs on the same leaf.
The exceptions are eggs that are laid in clusters/sacs like spiders and praying mantis, which have many children, but are also kind of neutral (they will attack friends as well).
You never find 100 ladybugs, lacewings, etc on the same plant, but you will find 100 squash bugs in squash for example.
You could attach a teabag or similar fine mesh bag, tape it around the stem, and find out.
If you don’t want to kill it, cut the entire leaf off and move it far away from your garden.
Holy shit it’s like I’m watching “300” again
I found a leaf on a pepper plant today that looked like that except the eggs were purple. No idea what they were but I tore off the leaf and smashed the eggs with my shoe.
Love the measuring tape on hand
Trypophobia is going crazzzy
Idk what eggs they are but don’t kill them. Just put them far away
This is the grossest things I’ve maybe ever seen
Squash bugs/stink bugs. That’s the most I’ve ever seen in one grouping. Take the whole leaf off and crush them all.
It’s hard to see but they look like some kind of stink bug egg. Usually stinkbug eggs have a small hole on one side, sort of like the aril of yew. I think I see some of those in your photo.
Ugh kill them.
Those are either moth eggs or stink bug eggs. Either way, you need to get rid of them.
Great pics. Usually foe
Gross looking. I think I had the same eggs on my trellis last year and I ended up just putting them in a plastic bag and throwing it away in the garbage. Didn’t wanna risk it
From what I googled it looked like stink bug eggs, and alot of them at that
Burn them up!
Blow torch will fix that problem. Clusters of eggs like that usually isn’t a good sign at all