unknow bug eating tomato plants

I found these bugs (quite a few) eating my tomato plants, stems leaves and all. I couldn't find them listed on any website. I don't know what they are but they are eating machines! I did get some pictures. They are red with black dots along their sides and 6 black legs. They remind me of a grub type of insect. Any help would be great.

Thanks,

Anna

 

Anyone have any idea what this bug is or where I could look to find out? I know that I have seen this one before but don't know where.

 

Colorado Potato Beetle Larva!

I have these on my tomatoes here in Ithaca. The parents crawl out of the soil in spring and lay eggs. They're voracious eater...luckily tomatoes can stand a bit of pruning. If your garden is small, like mine, you can just squash them.

Wonderful photos!

Freese Rd!

 

beat me to it! yep, that's what they are alright! Ugly little suckers. I came across a pic while trying to identify one of my own. Here's the site if interested.

http://images.google.com/imgres?img...patch+pests&start=42&gbv=2&ndsp=21&hl=en&sa=N

scroll down a little bit.

 

Yes, we have them in our garden in Hanover, Indiana...what ARE THEY???
I can't find any info anywhere on the internet.

 

Sheesh...why didn't I read your post more closely??
I kept trying to find them on the post where the person said to scroll down and nothing was there...
Thanks.

 

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?PBeetle i June 2007 Colorado Potato beetle - Leptinotarsa decemlineata
http://www.durgan.org/URL/?Cluster 2 June 2007 Colorado Potato Beetle Egg Cluster

Potatoes are the preferred host for the Colorado potato beetle. Up to about 100 plants, by carefully picking, the bugs they can be controlled. This must be done about four times per day. The secret is to get the egg clusters, which are located on the lower leaves on the underside. After 100 the labor is too extensive, and chemical control need be utilized.

It may feed and survive on a number of other plants in the nightshade family: eggplant, tomato, pepper, tobacco, ground cherry, horse-nettle, common nightshade, belladonna, thorn apple, henbane, and its first recorded host plant: buffalo-bur.

From egg to destroyer it takes about four days under ideal conditions. This nasty surfaced in Colorado and other locals in the mid eighteen hundreds. The bug jumped from its host plant to all these new additions called potatoes. The potato bug has encircled the globe.

In the good old days Paris Green was used for control, and later DDT, now there is a hodge podge of control chemicals.