Pity the backyard gardener. If the deer don’t get you, the rabbits will. And if they leave you alone, the squirrels bite and dig up everything. Then there is too much or too little rain or stink bugs or Japanese beetles. In Chuck Strauss’s case, it’s a tomato hornworm. Chuck said that one day, the leaves were completely gone from two of his tomato plants. He thought at first it was deer, then he saw the culprit. A tomato caterpillar, a tomato hornworm to be exact, and what a pest!
Here’s the deal. On a late spring evening, the hornworm moths (one pictured above) lay tiny yellow eggs on the vegetable vines. Once they hatch, the well-camouflaged beasts begin mowing down everything in sight. Often, you don’t know they’re there until the plants have been stripped. The caterpillars grow quickly, then go underground to pupate, then emerge as a huge moth, sometimes called a hummingbird moth. Humming bird lovers often see these giant bugs at their feeders. If you get a chance, kill them. A whiffle ball bat will do the job if you can get close enough.
When it concerns a backyard garden, as Roseanne Roseannadanna says, “If it ain’t one thing, it’s another.”