Destructive Beauty
Tomato Hornworms are HUGE (this one was 5 inches long)!!! I found 2 on my tomato plants the other day (and the biggest one I’ve ever seen on my pepper plant). Before smashing him I took a few photos. They are really beautiful worms, such vibrant colors and detailed markings. They will however eat through a tomato plant faster than you can believe.
How can you tell if there’s a hornworm on your tomato? You’ll see evidence of eaten plants and fruit, you’ll also see “castings” on the leaves below the worms. You have to look hard to find them. They are perfectly camouflaged on the vines. One of my tomato vines is about a foot shorter than the others and one of the tomatoes was half eaten.
This is what a casting looks like.
If you happen to find a tomato hornworm that has little white things on it’s back that look like tic-tacs, let it live. Those white things are the eggs of a beneficial wasp, they’ll hatch out and eat the worm. Last year I had these on my hornworms, I haven’t yet this year. Beware when grabbing them (I usually just cut off the branch they’re on), Mr Chiots tried to get the one off the pepper plant with a stick and the worm started attacking the stick.
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Stowaways
It seems like there’s always some sort of critter that makes it’s way in on the produce. I harvested some broccoli and lettuce the other day and found 3 stowaways on the veggies. They all went back outside to finish up their gardening chores.
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Busy Bees
I always enjoy watching the bees at work.
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The First Yellow Swallowtail
This morning while weeding I noticed the first monarch (oops it’s a yellow swallowtail, thanks for correcting me mom!) of the season. They sure do like the echinacea. I really need to plant a few more flowers for them.
