does soapy water work for tomato and bell pepper plants?

[JessicaL]

My tomato plant and my two bell pepper plants are loosing leaves. The leaves have holes in them that look like worms or caterpillars are eating them. I mixed up a little bit of dawn dish soap and water in a spray bottle and used it on my plants. But when I went to water them today, they are some what brown and now almost all of my tomato plants leaves are dead!! What should I do???

 

[Sandyspacecase]

I'll bet they are Hornworms. They can go through a plant almost overnight. Then you start seeing what looks like something took a big old bite out of your tomato's. They are Hornworms. They are so hard to see also. I don't see very well and hard a very hard time looking for them. I tried soap, no luck. I went to the Hardware store and got some liquid Sevin to spray on them as it said it would kill the hornworms. Yeah right, only in my dreams. I finally had to pull out all of my bushes and burn them. That's how bad they were. I have never seen them so bad and I have been growing them for years.

 

[jeanannj]

2 teaspoons of soap to a quart of water is good. The soap should be washed off an hour after putting it on.
Tomato worms, also called hornworms, are green and are the color of the stems eat holes in leaves and can be picked off.
Aphids are tiny long legged bugs and can be washed off. If they have just hatched they look like grains of rice on the plants. They suck juice out of leaves, not make holes.

Cut the dead leaves off. Check for tiny eggs under the leaves. They might be aphids eggs or some other kind and if they are they can be wipped off.

Slugs eat holes in leaves. Placing a board on the soil overnight and checking under it early in the morning will tell you if there are slugs or some other bugs, like earwigs.