The 24 entries in Laisha's encyclopedia that attack Tomato, grouped by type. Each page covers identification, life cycle, the conditions that favour it, action thresholds and integrated management.

Growing Tomato? The free Tomato grow guide covers the crop from sowing to harvest.

Insect pests

• Colorado potato beetleLeptinotarsa decemlineataInsect · A striped yellow-and-black beetle whose humpbacked red larvae can strip potato fields of leaves in a few…
• Cotton bollworm (Old World bollworm)Helicoverpa armigeraInsect · A moth whose caterpillars bore into the fruiting parts of cotton, chickpea, pigeon pea, tomato, maize and…
• Eggplant fruit and shoot borer (brinjal borer)Leucinodes orbonalisInsect · The most destructive pest of eggplant (brinjal) in South and Southeast Asia. Its pink caterpillars bore into…
• Green peach aphidMyzus persicaeInsect · A small, soft-bodied aphid found on hundreds of crops worldwide. Colonies curl leaves and leave sticky…
• Melon flyZeugodacus cucurbitaeInsect · A fruit fly whose maggots rot the young fruit of bitter gourd, cucumber, melon, pumpkin and other cucurbits.…
• Oriental fruit flyBactrocera dorsalisInsect · A fruit fly whose females lay eggs under the skin of ripening mango, guava, papaya, citrus and hundreds of…
• Serpentine leafminer (Liriomyza leafminers)Liriomyza trifoliiInsect · Leafminers are tiny black-and-yellow flies whose maggots tunnel inside leaves, leaving pale, winding trails.…
• Silverleaf whitefly (Bemisia whitefly)Bemisia tabaciInsect · A tiny white sap-sucking insect that sits on the undersides of leaves of cotton, vegetables, cassava and…
• Tomato leaf miner (Tuta absoluta)Phthorimaea absolutaInsect · A tiny moth whose caterpillars tunnel inside tomato leaves, stems and fruit. Within a few generations a crop…
• Western flower thripsFrankliniella occidentalisInsect · A thrips barely visible to the eye that lives in flowers and young leaves of vegetables, fruit and…

Mites

• Two-spotted spider mite (red spider mite)Tetranychus urticaeMite · A mite smaller than a pinhead that sucks the contents of leaf cells, leaving pale speckles, bronzed leaves…

Nematodes

• Potato cyst nematodes (golden and pale)Globodera rostochiensis and Globodera pallidaNematode · Two closely related nematodes that live in potato roots and leave behind tough cysts, each full of eggs, that…
• Root-knot nematodesMeloidogyne incognitaNematode · Root-knot nematodes are microscopic worms that enter roots and turn them into swollen, knotted galls, so…

Fungal diseases

• Anthracnose of chilli (fruit rot and dieback)Colletotrichum scovillei and Colletotrichum truncatumFungal disease · Anthracnose is the most damaging fungal disease of chilli and sweet pepper fruit in the tropics and…
• Early blight of potato and tomatoAlternaria solaniFungal disease · Early blight is a common leaf disease of potato and tomato that makes dark brown spots with rings like a…
• Fusarium wilt of tomatoFusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersiciFungal disease · Fusarium wilt is a soil-borne disease that blocks the water-conducting tissue of tomato. Lower leaves yellow,…
• Grey mould (Botrytis)Botrytis cinereaFungal disease · Grey mould is a fluffy grey fungus that rots strawberries, grapes, tomatoes, flowers and hundreds of other…

Oomycete diseases (water moulds)

• Damping-off of seedlingsPythium aphanidermatum and other soil-borne pathogensOomycete disease · Damping-off is the death of seeds and young seedlings caused by soil-borne water moulds and fungi, above all…
• Late blight of potato and tomatoPhytophthora infestansOomycete disease · Late blight is the disease that caused the Irish potato famine in the 1840s, and it is still the most…

Bacterial diseases

• Bacterial wilt (Ralstonia wilt, brown rot of potato)Ralstonia solanacearum species complexBacterial disease · A soil- and water-borne bacterium that blocks the water-conducting tissue of tomato, potato, eggplant,…

Virus diseases

• Chilli leaf curl diseaseChilli leaf curl virus and related begomovirusesVirus disease · Chilli leaf curl is the most destructive virus disease of chilli in South Asia and an important one across…
• Papaya leaf curl diseasePapaya leaf curl virus and related begomovirusesVirus disease · Papaya leaf curl is a whitefly-transmitted virus disease that makes papaya leaves curl downward and inward,…
• Tomato yellow leaf curl disease (TYLCV)Tomato yellow leaf curl virusVirus disease · Tomato yellow leaf curl is caused by a virus spread by the whitefly Bemisia tabaci. Infected tomato plants…

Physiological disorders

• Blossom-end rotPhysiological calcium disorder (no pathogen)Physiological disorder · Blossom-end rot is a dark, sunken, leathery patch at the flower end of tomato, pepper, watermelon, squash and…