Thursday, September 15, 2011

Hornworms

Yesterday we went out to our garden and we noticed a lot of our tomato leaves and about a dozen young tomatoes were eaten. We found tons of these worms, called hornworms on our plants. They were up to 5 inches long!  We grabbed our scissors and chopped all the worms in half (gross, but effective!) We killed about 30 yesterday and only about six today. They also eat potatoes, so if you have a garden beware of these beasts! Even though they have a very scary-looking horn, they are completely harmless to you (not your tomatoes though!) These creatures turn into hawk moths. The moths are very large and they sort of act like hummingbirds.

3 comments:

  1. Are you sure they're dead? Do you now have about 72 2-inch-long hornworms? ;)

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  2. We found some very bright green horned creatures on the habanero pepper plants that we grow on an upstairs deck (It is the only place in Woodland Heights where we can find enough sun to grow vegetables). They blend into the leaves and twigs so well that we didn't notice them for a long time, but one evening several were extruding little white things from their body -- they looked like some kind of egg, maybe 30-40 on each bug. We removed them and vacuumed up any "eggs" that had fallen on the deck below. Haven't seen more yet.
    Since habanero peppers are about 300 times hotter than jalapenos, I'm wondering what kind of tastebuds those worms have (and whether any creatures who eat them may get a surprise).
    from: Alan and Mary

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