Expert: nick mccann - 5/24/2009

Question
Hello,

I live in NYC and have a rather large terrace so I decided to buy several large
containers to grow some tomatoes - I planted 8 in all last week, in separate
large pots. In addition to the tomato plants I bought 5 box planters that are
elevated that I filled with petunias, geraniums, marigolds, etc.

Two of the tomato plants have this teeny tiny BRIGHT RED bugs like resemble
ticks, but they are the size salt grains(very small). My petunias, geraniums,
etc all seem totally unaffected. I went out to my local hardware store where
you can imagine expert advice on gardening is nonexistent since I live in
Manhattan, so the people working there could offer me little advice except
direct me to the small gardening supply area where there were a couple
choices of insecticides.  I bought Bon-Neem Insecticidal Soap(blend of
potassium soap derived from Indian Neem tree seed oil) which I guess is
suppose to kill all pests and powdery mildew while being gentle.

My question is: Do these little red pests spell disaster for my first try at
gardening on my terrace? I sprayed the leaves down(making sure to reach the
underside), at dusk and will repeat in a week, even though the label says to
not treat newly transplanted vegetation.  Should I spray everything? Even my
plants that do not look like they are infested?

Any advice on what to do would be much appreciated!  

Answer
Hi Gloria, its either mites or aphids, but either way, the soap should do the trick, but in the future if you are in a pinch and need to kill any small insects, just hit them with some household Isoprohyl alcohol and that will do the trick; don't spray everything with the soap, only where you see insects. Nick