26.9.10

Attack of the Green Tomato Hornworm

I often leave for work before the sun rises.  This means that I often water the garden before the sun comes up, so I occasionally miss a pest problem in the early stages.  This week was no exception.  I went outside to pick the first of the beefsteak tomatoes and a handful of cherry tomatoes and found that both plants had been decimated by a hungry critter.  As I reached down to look at the half of a tomato dangling from the vine I saw a huge caterpillar.  I'm talking about a 4-inch long green behemoth as thick as my thumb clinging to the stem below the fruit.  Green Tomato Hornworm.  After further inspection I found at least one more, and a few other tomatoes that were likely harboring smaller versions of the buggers.  I removed the worms and the infected fruit by hand and fed the worms to some hungry birds.
The tomato in the back of the picture has been hollowed out, and contains a fat green worm.
A bird swooped down and nabbed the four inch long big greeny in front while I was working in another part of the yard so they must be tasty to the right customer.  I did some research and supposedly hot pepper and dish soap in water will keep these guys at bay, so I'm mixing up a batch and will return to my plant with spray bottle in hand this evening.

Update: I routinely sprayed my tomatoes every two to three days with the hot pepper-garlic-soap mixture all season, and wound up not getting to eat a single tomato the whole season. Everyone was infested with hornworms and hollowed out before it ripened.  I probably threw out 50 cherry tomatoes and 15 massive beefsteaks.  I'm still looking for a non-toxic solution for pest control on tomatoes, but won't waste my time with the hot pepper soap mixture again.

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