This week at the Hometown Harvest Smart Garden, Max was met with some very unwelcome visitors.

The case of the shriveled tomatoes

While going out to check on the tomato plants, Max noticed that something wasn’t right. Instead of plump, healthy tomatoes, most of them were shriveled, discolored, and marked with dark spots where the flesh had begun to rot away. Max also noticed a new bug had shown up around the garden and taken a strong liking to the tomato plants. It didn’t take him long to connect the dots.

To help figure out what these bugs were and how they were hurting the tomatoes, Max leaned on the garden’s smart side once again. He snapped a photo of the bug and ran it through Google Lens, which uses artificial intelligence to quickly identify and provide information on the subject of a photo. The verdict came back fast: leaf-footed bugs.

Leaf-footed bugs have the opposite effect of the friendly pollinators talked about in last week’s post. Using their piercing, straw-like mouthparts, they feed directly on the juice from the tomatoes, leaving behind yellow spots, hard patches, or sunken dents. In bad enough cases, the fruit rots or shrivels before it ever gets the chance to ripen. One or two bugs might not cause much trouble, but a real infestation, like the one that hit the garden, can wipe out a serious portion of the harvest.

how max fought back

Solving the problem meant a bit of compromise. As Max puts it:

“We really weren’t high on the idea of using pesticides on our garden, but we need some more tomatoes, so Sevin dust it is.”

Sevin dust is a type of insecticide that uses an active ingredient called carbaryl. This disrupts an insect’s nervous system on contact, killing them within a few hours. Max sprinkled the dust across the tomato plants, covering every leaf-footed bug he could see. This was done with a bit of enjoyment (cue the evil laugh), knowing he was protecting his precious tomato plants.

Between a little smart-garden problem solving and a sprinkle of Sevin dust, the tomatoes are getting another shot at growth. If you have any tips or tricks of your own for dealing with leaf-footed bugs, let Max know on the Upcountry Fiber Instagram or Facebook page.

Max and his tomatoes – 1, Leaf-footed bugs – 0.