The one food I eat on an almost daily basis is tomatoes, are tomatoes, are tomatos…
Whatever.
At the end of June of 2012 we had a storm rip through Yorkville that wiped out the trees in my backyard. Now I have an abundance of sun and this year I decided to give another try at growing a few things. For some reason I assumed the results would be pathetic like they were when the yard was entombed in shade.
I couldn’t have been more wrong.
I now have tomato plants that are completely out of control. I planted them too close together, had to move 4 of them to pots when they were nearly four feet high just to be able to get to the others and now I have six a six foot tall impenetrable mass of tomato plants in my garden.
At least the four in the pots are easy to get to.
Every evening I tend to the plants, watering them, picking tomatoes and pulling weeds.
Today I was confronted with chewed up plants. Apparently the plants in the pots were easy to get to for other critters.
One plant was pretty well chewed to pieces and there was a bridge to another plant formed by tomato stems. That plant too was getting chewed up. I knew it was a damn tomato hornworm.
I no sooner said to the wife that I bet we find the culprit… and there he was, a good five inches long. Chewing a small green tomato down to nothing.
The wife and I discussed what to do with it. Kill it, move it, leave it alone…
I chose to leave it alone.
After all, we were both here for the same reason. Our love of tomatoes. Already a handful of cherry tomatoes never made it into the container that was to be brought into the house, that happens daily too.
How can I fault the poor little guy.
If I could stomach the green parts, I ‘d probably eat that too.
bob
18 Jul 2013one ugly effing critter. ugh. kill it. no, don’t. he wants to live too. of course, this comes from a guy who works with maggots for a living, and playfully puts them in his mouth and swallows them for the delight of kids and the grossing out of their moms. no wonder my love life is so…..empty.
Ken G
19 Jul 2013One of my favorite things to do when helping you years ago was trying to see how many kids and moms I could get dry heaving with that little maggot fun.
Richard Velders
19 Jul 2013Bless you for providing sustenance for that beautiful creature. 🙂 Dick
Ken G
20 Jul 2013Usually by this time of year we’re in the middle of raising a good 50 monarchs. So far this year, not a single one. Read any article last week that because of last years drought we may have lost 75% of this years monarchs, a whole generation. Was thinking of keeping this guy, but moths take forever to turn into moths and it kind of takes the fun out of it.
Nick@BrookfieldAngler.com
19 Jul 2013You need a chameleon. They love them! I had 3 of them pre-baby and they loved hornworms! The onyl problem is that they tend to be toxic to the chameleons after eating tomato plants so I guess that won’t really work…
Ken G
20 Jul 2013I used to have pet pirhanas a long time ago and would feed them minnows. I got tired of them playing games with the minnows, biting their heads off and letting them swim around for awhile that way. I couldn’t do that to this beautiful little worm.
Jim McClellan
19 Jul 2013I think I might have relocated that guy!
Ken G
20 Jul 2013Odd thing is that we only find one a year. If the damage this guy did is normal, I’m glad we only get one a year.
Howard Levett
19 Jul 2013God, I hate those things. We always called them tomato worms since I was a kid. I hate tomatoes, but hate these even more. Kill em!
Ken G
20 Jul 2013That’s how I feel about trout Howard, but I have a feeling it’s more of a jealousy thing since Illinois doesn’t have any…