Friday, July 30, 2010

Spot the Unwelcome Guest


Hanging there Silent.
Like any old leaf in the wind,
While eating its fill.


Tomatoes bursting,
With the flavor of summer.
He watches nearby.


Inviting a taste,
they come in all the colors
of a spring rainbow.


The villain is clear.
Above the Tomatoes here,
Yes, his time has come.

The first fat tomato hornworm has been found this year. While I'm sure there are more where he came from I haven't had a chance to really groom the plants. I'm hoping the wasps do their job this year and take care of most of them for me. This guy is now in a cage being fed pruned tomato branches so we can see if we can get him to turn into a cocoon for Gabe.

1 comment:

Pam J. said...

Hey, your tomatoes look great! So far I have only one that's turned red.

I try not to hate these beautiful creatures, but I had one last year and it was alarming how quickly it could strip a tomato plant of every single leaf. I kept mine in a little cage for several weeks, feeding him tomato leaves and water, until I finally decided it was time to "let him go." Don't recall what method I used to "let him go" but he ended up in the compost pile eventually. Glad to hear that wasps are a hornworm predator. Got plenty of those too.