Yesterday afternoon I was slogging through my water-logged garden, putting the next strands of baling twine up on my Florida Weave trellising method that we discussed in previous posts. The hay mulched tightly around the base of the plants is doing an absolute stellar job of thwarting any weed growth.
The huge amount of rain has many of my tomato plants to be in distress with yellowed leaves on some, stunted growth, and just sick looking plants on the lowest portion of the rows. After this weekend, I think the rain chances will diminish and man, plant, and beast around Our Maker's Acres Family Farm will rejoice!
In addition to the enormous amount of rainfall, there are other predators at work in the tomato patch. The photo below is out of focus, but you can see that something has eaten all the stems and leaves off of the tomato plant in the foreground. Whatever it was, it sure was hungry! I knew I just had to find the culprit before it consumed the entire plant.
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| Who's eating our Tomato Plants? |
We don't use any pesticides in our garden, so it comes down to me hunting for the pesky perpetrator and eliminating him from the garden. In looking at the damage, I knew it wouldn't be hard to find. He would have to be a fat caterpillar to engage in such a feast. Sure enough, I spotted the green worm, gorging himself on our tomato plants - A perfectly healthy specimen of the Tomato Hornworm!
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| Why, it's a fat Tomato Hornworm! |
Well, he wasn't giving up without a fight. I tried to pry him from his place at the "supper table," and he clung to the tomato plant for dear life. Finally, I had him loose. The photo below shows why he's called the Hornworm. You can see the red horn protruding from one end. He's all bark and no bite, though and he's incapable of stinging you with it, but it's still kind of scary. I dropped him when he reached around.
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| How the Hornworm got his name |
Tomato Hornworms are the larval stage of the Five-Spotted Hawkmoth. Here's what they look like:
The biggest predator to the tomato hornworm is the wasp. Wasps apparently feed on hornworms. However, I'm not likely to keep wasps around to control them biologically. I kill every wasp nest I see because I don't like getting stung. So how will I control the hornworms? Well, I'll pick them off and give them to some creatures I keep around that probably like eating hornworms more than wasps do - Chickens!!
I tossed that fat hornworm over the garden fence and the Rhode Island Red in the middle grabbed that fat boy and took off running with all the other hens in chase. She gobbled it down with the quickness! I continued scouting for hornworms on the other tomato rows and did find three more of them. They weren't quite as fat, but they still proved to be tasty morsels for my fine, feathered friends.
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