Bugs Ate My Tomatoes - Please Help!

ChloeMartin86 · April 13, 2016

Hi everybody!

I have a serious issue with my tomatoes, which I grow in containers and under a shed in my backyard. They were growing very well, but once they started to ripen these nasty stinky bugs arrived and started eating up all my hard efforts... I've never had this issue before I decided to go all organic on my vegetables, so now I have no idea what to do. Do you know an organic solution to get rid of the nasty bugs and save the tomatoes? I already did some research, and a few sources suggested that I will have to replace the soil in the containers, because these things can lay eggs in the soil or something. I have a contractor which took care of installing the containers and the soil, and I also call them sometimes to take care of the garden while I'm out of town - http://www.gardeners-melbourne.com.au/turf-laying/ , but I don't want to call them until I find out if I can deal with the problem quickly and on my own.
So, I would really appreciate all kinds of help you can offer - tips, possible solutions, ideas how to prevent this from happening in the future and everything like that. Also, do I really have to change the soil in the containers? I'm attaching pictures of the bugs and my tomatoes to help:

April 13, 2016	#1
ChloeMartin86 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2016 Location: Melbourne, VIC Posts: 1	Bugs Ate My Tomatoes - Please Help! Hi everybody! I have a serious issue with my tomatoes, which I grow in containers and under a shed in my backyard. They were growing very well, but once they started to ripen these nasty stinky bugs arrived and started eating up all my hard efforts... I've never had this issue before I decided to go all organic on my vegetables, so now I have no idea what to do. Do you know an organic solution to get rid of the nasty bugs and save the tomatoes? I already did some research, and a few sources suggested that I will have to replace the soil in the containers, because these things can lay eggs in the soil or something. I have a contractor which took care of installing the containers and the soil, and I also call them sometimes to take care of the garden while I'm out of town - http://www.gardeners-melbourne.com.au/turf-laying/ , but I don't want to call them until I find out if I can deal with the problem quickly and on my own. So, I would really appreciate all kinds of help you can offer - tips, possible solutions, ideas how to prevent this from happening in the future and everything like that. Also, do I really have to change the soil in the containers? I'm attaching pictures of the bugs and my tomatoes to help: