Chronicaling the lunacy of taming three acres in Tidewater Virginia, one square foot at a time!

"Gardens... should be like lovely, well-shaped girls: all curves, secret corners, unexpected deviations, seductive surprises and then still more curves. ~H.E. Bates, A Love of Flowers


Wednesday, June 23, 2010

At War With the Hornworms!

But first...I am still stuck on my crazy coneflowers...who are turning somewhat risque looking...but it's all birds and bees isn't it?


OK...now on to the horn worms. I happily go to see what's going on in the garden before scooting off to work and I was screamed with horror when I saw that ~1/3 of the leaves had been eaten off the Mr Stripey tomatoes by two FAT FAT FAT horn worms who I could swear smirked at me! I quickly declared war and since the recommended squishing is not my cup of tea, I retrieved a plastic drink bottle from the trash, snatched the offenders from my Mr Stripey's (of course with a gloved hand) and dropped their green butts into the bottle. I left the sealed bottle near the tomatoes as a warning to the other hormworms...eat my stuff and the same fate awaits you...death by plastic drink bottle...(insert evil laugh here!)
Here is the bottle- see the offenders in the bottle....ha!


On a much more pleasant note...I picked my first Cherokee Purple tomato and at it warm with salt for lunch...it was incredible...and made me forget the whole worm trauma.
Lastly, the okra is flowering and fruiting.....cool!

4 comments:

Carolyn ♥ said...

still waiting for my Cherokee Tomatoe to set fruit, yours looks delicious!

Curbstone Valley Farm said...

Hornworms are definitely my least favorite beastie in the vegetable garden. The tomato patch at our last house was infested with them...makes me shudder just thinking about them. Thankfully, at least so far, we haven't seen any here. Your Cherokee Purple looks fabulous by the way...I'm very envious, ours aren't ready yet.

Amy said...

Those hornworms are just awful! :/ If I do see one...you will hear me scream from Austin. I do have leaf footed bugs, however. Your tomato looks good!

GardenGoddess said...

I accidentally squished one while removing it...they actually have pretty strong clingy feet...it TOTALLY GROSSED ME OUT!! Those suckers sure can eat!