Q: Our tomato plants and garden are infested with stink bugs and leaf-footed bugs. Is there an organic pesticide, safe for the environment and pets, that we can use to eliminate these insects? They are ruining our garden.

A: Both stinkbugs and leaf-footed bugs harm a garden by sticking their siphoning mouthparts into ripe fruit. Your leaf-footed bug looks like Leptoglossus pyllopus. Both are difficult to control with insecticides.

Spinosad (click for sources) and/or a rotenone-pyrethrin combination are used as organic insecticides. You’ll have to spray regularly to get control.

Some gardeners report success with using a hand-held vacuum to suck up the insects.

leaf footed bug

 

leaf footed bug