Most of the tomato plants look pretty vigorous, but there is something eating holes and chunks out of the lower leaves. Most of the plants have at least some damage. There are tiny black insects, almost ground pepper in size and appearance. They are difficult to see, but the damage is real and concerning for worse to come.
The damage looks like this:
There are lots of tiny insects, mostly on the cardboard mulch but also some on the leaves. IT's difficult to take a photo of them because they jump around a lot. Also, I thought that some of the damage might be caused by slugs, so applied slug bait. Now I think it's really all flea beetle.
I'm guessing these are black flea beetles.
About a week ago, I applied this brand of neem oil spray.
After a week, there were still lots of the tiny insects visible on the cardboard mulch, so I bought this neem oil concentrate and mixed per label instructions.
I applied that three days ago. Unfortunately, two hours later there was a big thunderstorm, so I imagine that most of the neem oil treatment washed off. This morning I applied another treatment. I also added about a teaspoon of peppermint extract per 32 ounce of neem mixture.
I don't know if it will help. I can add another treatment in a week, or maybe switch to pyrethrin. I want to stay with organic methods.
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