Brown Stink Bug damage?

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Last summer I lost the entire second wave of my tomato crop to (I think) brown stink bugs. I say I think because they were all over the plants but seemed to only feed on ripe tomatoes. The fruit looked fine the whole time it was growing, but the moment it colored, it also developed what looked like water soaked or greasy sunken patches. These patches were irregular in shape and from quarter size to half tomato size. I'll bet that for every tomato I picked, I pitched over ten rotten ones.

Does this sound familiar to anyone? Am I right to suspect the stinkbugs? Any organic ideas on controlling them? I do remember reading a very small blurb in Organic Gardening (I think) about European Brown Stinkbugs, but the blurb was very small, and I haven't had much luck with searches.

Any help would be welcome!

[Suze]

Last summer I lost the entire second wave of my tomato crop to (I think) brown stink bugs. I say I think because they were all over the plants but seemed to only feed on ripe tomatoes. The fruit looked fine the whole time it was growing, but the moment it colored, it also developed what looked like water soaked or greasy sunken patches. These patches were irregular in shape and from quarter size to half tomato size.

Hi, Andy. This does not sound like stink bugs are your sole problem. Stink bug damage is whitish-yellow and kind of corky. There can occasionally be some dark spots that are caused by the stink bugs breaking the surface of the skin, thus allowing some bacteria in. However, this wouldn't cause rotting at the scale you describe.

You might find it helpful to go through the pictures at the TAMU tomato problem solver and see how they compare to the problems you've had.

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/tomatoproblemsolver/index.html

In particular, I would consider Anthracnose as a possibility, as you've mentioned seeing the spotting only on ripe fruits, and you've also mentioned that the damage was to the "second wave of your tomato crop" (anthracnose tends to occur later in the season).

Or, perhaps one of the pythium rots.

I'm inclined to suggest that it probably wouldn't be late blight as you're saying there wasn't spotting on unripe fruits, but have a look at those pictures as well.

Let me know what you think/decide...

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Suze,

Thank you for the link, it's very illuminating. As near as I can tell, it was really Cottony Leak. I wonder if Stinkbugs act as a disease vector for the agents? Boy, do I ever wish I had paid more attention in Bio 211!

[Suze]

I wonder if Stinkbugs act as a disease vector for the agents?

Hi, again. Nope. Sounds like your problem is fungal in origin. Fungal spores can either be airborne or in the soil. Suggestions for minimizing fungal problems would include the following (you may already be doing some of these):

* cage or stake plants so that fruit isn't in contact with the ground
* mulch to prevent soil splashback onto plants during rains or watering - straw mulch is a favorite
* site plants so that they get good early morning sun (to dry the dew off)
* don't unnecessarily wet the foliage of your plants to limit fungal spore increase

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Yep, that pretty much sounds like the regimen that I use. I even rotate the 'mater bed so they're in the same spot only once every four years. Guess I just "hit the lottery"!

[Mary]

I was looking on the net for " brown stink bugs",they come from China and other parts of Asia. They were found in Pennsylvania,New Jersey,Maryland and Virginia.If you haven't looked on the net ,you might take a look.I hope you have a great garden without the bugs and problems you had in the past.

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A couple of months ago, the local paper ran a one-page spread on the little buggers, and said pretty much the same thing. They also said to just "grin and bear it", as the pest-control companies don't have much luck "nuking" them! Hopefully, they won't come back this year. Yeah, right!