A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Food Garden Forum The Tomato Forum Aphids ....Will they hurt my tomatoes?

I have a bad case of aphids in my greenhouse on my sweet peppers. My tomatoes are in the same greenhouse and I'm wondering if the aphids with move over onto the tomatoes as well?

I have some pictures posted in the problems with pests forum if you would like to see what's happening in my greenhouse.

I don't know if anyone directly answered this question about tomatoes and aphids. I do skim read rather quickly sometimes. but, in my experience the apids do like the pepppers better but they will move to tomatoes.
I think at this point, your right on about trying to move the peppers out...then blast with water. is it getting too cold for them to just be outside where you are?

I think they will. I had aphids start on a sweet potato this season. I sprayed with rotenone pyrethrins and they went away pretty fast. I was impressed with how well it worked on them. After that I brought any lady bug I found and stuck them over there. Since then I have seen a lot of lady bugs in the garden which is great, but it scares me that they are eating aphids I don't know about. You can buy lady bugs to put in your greenhouse if you don't have any.

I missed the aphid-tomato-pepper part, too.

Some aphid species are host-specific, others are more general-- they don't care who they suck. I don't know about the specific species on your peppers, but a good, careful look at the tomatoes now couldn't hurt. Look especially under the leaves of new growth. Aphids can also attack old leaves, but you're more likely to see them on new leaves and stem tissue first.

Also, lady bugs are not the only insects that eat aphids. Spiders, lacewings, praying mantis, some stink bugs, and others eat aphids.

I've bought a garlic spray that I'm going to try next year. To see if it really works. Organic and hopefully will cut down on pests. It is called Garlic Barrier. JD

Just a quick update, I had to destroy all my peppers for the aphids had taken all the blooms and nothing was growing any more. So far my tomatoes are doing great. I did give my greenhouse a good cleaning so maybe I did get rid of the aphids.


I have lots of flowers in my greenhouse yet too and none of them were touched by aphids either. I will get so garlic spray for next year too. Where did you buy yours? elkhwc I'll have to remember that name.

Just www.garlicbarrier.com I think. You can do a search also. I picked it because some cotton farmers south of us are using it and claim it works. I won't be able to comment till next year. Got it too late this year. JD

I'm very interested and will try it next year as well. Thanks lots for letting me know about this.