🦵 Leaf-footed Bug
Leptoglossus phyllopus
It stabs your tomatoes with a straw and drinks the juice.
How to identify
Large (3/4 inch) dark brown or black true bug with flattened, leaf-like expansions on the hind legs — the 'leaf feet' that give it away. Nymphs are bright orange-red with black legs and cluster together in groups.
Damage signs
Pierces fruit, nuts, and seeds with needle-like mouthparts, injecting saliva that causes sunken black spots, deformed fruit, and aborted seeds. On tomatoes it leaves hard yellow-white feeding spots under the skin.
Plants it attacks
Tomato, pecan, citrus, pomegranate, squash, beans, sunflower
Non-chemical controls
- Handpick adults and nymphs in the morning when they're slow — knock them into a bucket of soapy water.
- Vacuum them off plants with a handheld vacuum in the cool hours — fast and oddly gratifying.
- Remove egg clusters (golden barrel-shaped eggs laid in rows on leaf undersides) before they hatch.
- Cover fruit clusters with fine mesh bags or row cover once fruit sets.
- Clear weeds and debris where adults overwinter, and trellis tomatoes for airflow — they love dense, humid foliage.
- Plant sunflowers as a trap crop at the garden edge; leaf-footed bugs prefer them and congregate where you can vacuum them.
Nerdy fact: Leaf-footed bugs communicate by vibrating their bodies against leaves — sending Morse-code-like signals through the plant itself. Your tomato plant is their group chat.