The Tomato Suck Bug

[ginger2778]

Also known as the tomato bug, Engytatus Modestus, Cyrtopeltus Modesta. Image from UCANR.EDU

This is my third year battling this little horror, nightmare.
If you have all your blossoms dropping off, this may be why. It finds the tenderest parts of flower stems and sucks the juices with its piercing sucking mouthparts, then the blossoms never develop or dry up and fall off, so not much fruit forms.

It burrows into stems to lay its eggs, see the red brown ridge in the stem? That area becomes weak and brittle, breaks easily. As an adult it has 2 well formed wings and simply flies away if you are trying to spray it. It is in the same general family as Stink and Lygus, and leaf footed bugs, with a hard shell that makes organic pesticides only of limited use.

I have found that a solution of 1 Tablespoon Neem, I use pure 100%neem, and 1 Tablespoon of liquid organic dish soap( organic not mandatory, soap is) mixed in 1 gallon water, then applied to the top 1-2 feet of all new growth, for 4-5 cycles every 4 days seems to do the trick. After all, this is war!
The reason for every 4 days is to get the newly hatched nymphs before they mature, and get really hard shells(exoskeletons), and grow wings. They only grow to about 1/4 inch length, start out very small, and are hard to see due to their color, same as the tomato stem.
CoastalBend here has posted good success with Spinosad.
Good luck if you get this guy, which is on the move, and spreading fast. Last year there was almost nothing about it online, now several articles, as his infestation spreads.
Nymphs almost adult are pictured here, looking very similar to aphids, with only wing buds showing. Note the reddish brown rings where eggs are, inside the stem, also note their piercing sucking mouthparts.