Well, you knew it couldn’t all be hayseed and harvest, fun in the sun. There is an undelightful part. It deals with hornworms. The dreaded, well-camouflaged green beast that can devour an entire tomato plant within hours. Seriously. And you can’t see them. Really. I found half a dozen that I missed on visual inspection.
Not because my eyes are old and slack but because these little guys are extremely good at concealing themselves within the leaves. As you can see, he fits in very well with his environment. Even my eagle-eyed kids have trouble spotting these guys. So how did I find them, you ask?
It’s not pretty. Effective, but not pretty. You must “feel” your way through the leaves. When you come across a plump, gushy body, you know you’ve found one. Ick.
Once you get over the ick factor, you must peel the beast from the leaf/stem and dispatch it far, far from your garden. And once you’ve found one, it would behoove you to continue your search. There will be others. And really, you’ve worked too hard for those sweet ruby-red fruits to lose them now.
**sigh** The things we do for our garden…
I really was looking for your alternative way to find these! Lol! These things really gross me out! Heebie jeebies just remembering.
You can use your eyes but be sure to check under leaves, along the stem–and look HARD. These bad boys are not easy to spot. 🙂