As a rule we go outside and check the garden every night, just looking at plants, checking on any veggies that might be ready to harvest and to water if it’s necessary.
Last night we found this guy in the tomato patch. It’s the dreaded tomato horned worm. Now, that’s just not cool, at all.
So far we’ve only found 2 of these guys, but they were plump little dudes. It’s amazing how fast they can eat a tomato plant down to the nubs.
We’ve began searching for them regularly now. With any luck we won’t find anymore.
You gotta know where to look to find these horned worms.
Be sure to check your tomatoes regularly. They’re really hard to see. Their color matches the plant color perfectly and they are always on the underneath side of a leaf.
I find them by looking for where they’ve eaten. You can see here where he had eaten the end of the stem. Those sort of stick out to me.
I found the exact type of same eaten off stem right next to the last one I found.
When I was a kid, part of my summer garden chores at home was to pick off tomato worms, and I did it well. Dad would give me an old tin can and put about an inch of gas in it.
Then I’d use a stick and knock the worms off into the gas. We always had chickens and I’ve often wondered since, why he just didn’t feed them to the chickens.
We’ve heard that you they glow when you search for them at night with a black light. We’ve decided that’s something we’re going to have to try. That would certainly make finding them much easier.
How do you get rid of tomato horned worms? Let me know in the comments below. I’m sure there are plenty of people who would like to hear your answer to that one.
Until next time – Health, Wealth & Blessing ~ Tracey