I quit. I’ve had it up to here with the dastardly hornworm. He’s BACK in my garden and devouring my tomato plants at alarming rates. Egads–have you ever seen anything so horrid?
It’s not pretty. Probably can’t see him in there, tucked beneath the leaves. But look closely. Head like a walrus on one end, cute little tail like a puppy dog on the other, these creatures can eat their weight in tomato leaves in the space of ten minutes, taking out your entire plant by the end of the day. (Those missing leaves are his doing.)
Yep, that’s him. One of the “hims” and I assure you—it’s a him and not a her. Do you think a woman would destroy a perfectly good tomato plant—because she was hungry?
No. She would not. She may destroy it by any number of other means—black thumb, forgot to water, inadvertently crushed it while escaping a bee she mistook for a wasp—you get the picture. But never for food. Besides, the leaves are poisonous for human consumption. She knows better. But this plump little guy?
He’s a pig, in every sense of the word. Awful. To make matters worse, these two little fellas aren’t my only problem at the moment. Oh, no. I have this little guy to worry about, too.
Looks harmless. You might even say, “Why he’s so small, he can’t possibly eat much.” But you’d be surprised. This damage came from him, or perhaps a combined assault from caterpillar and cricket.
Saw a few of those hopping about his morning, as well. Ugh. So if you see a folded leaf on your plants (squash shown here), investigate further.
You’ll most likely find a little surprise hidden inside.
Not as much fun as digging through the Cracker Jack box, I assure you. He’s trouble. So be vigilant. Visit your garden every day. Admit when you have a problem. Pluck, squish, remove and dispatch from the garden. You have a hearty harvest awaiting you and cannot be dissuaded by such distraction!
Susan says
Ugh…I’ve had plenty of these attacking my veggies, too. I keep going out there and squeezing them a couple times of day. They are quite the irritation.
gardenfrisk says
Agree—an AWFUL irritation. Ick!
Rob says
I just stumbled across you blog and enjoyed reading! I used to have a problem with garden pests that would completely devour my plants. I am an organic gardener so chemicals were out of the question. I started spraying with (home brewed) compost tea every few weeks and I don’t have a problem anymore. I still get the occasional pest, but not enough to do any significant damage to my plants. ~Rob
gardenfrisk says
Thanks, Rob! I’ll have to “brew” up a batch this weekend, because my plants are ALL becoming victim now… 🙁 No good. Simply no good.