One of the things I loved most about our "new" home was the size of our yard. It was a baseball field compared to our first house (though it still holds a special place in my heart :), and I knew that I'd try my hand at growing some veggies. Last year was hit or miss so this year we tried the easy guys again, like tomatoes and basil. And let me tell you, my tomatoes were the envy of the street this summer!
They grew like weeds and swollen with yummy juicy fruit. Then we decided to take a few back to back trips a few weekends ago ...
So you know what that means, a little watering for the garden babies in the morning and then straight out the door for our adventures! So imagine my surprise when I went to water my tomatoes the other morning and noticed half of the leaves were gone! Did I overwater? Was it too sunny? Was there a blight on mah babies? Upon closer inspection, we found a group or rag-tag trespassers who were gorging on my lovely tomato plants ...
These dirty B's are called tomato hornworms, and if allowed will completely ruin your tomatoes. And yes, they looks like nasty little aliens here but I will testify that they are even uglier and gross in person. Blech!
And heaven help be but they are strong buggers! I had my husband pull them each from the plant (there was no way I was touching them!) and we disposed of them organically as suggested by various online sources (ie. google). What does that mean? You toss them in a cup of soapy water of course!
Thank God we haven't seen anymore trespassers since then because I don't know if my stomach (or tomato plant) can take anymore...