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Sat, May 5, 12 at 13:41
| Something is eating my tomato plant! From looking on the forum I'm thinking it might be a hornworm but I haven't seen any lurking around -
just their destruction! This morning my tomato plant leaves were stripped and underneath the plant are green segmented pilings. Is this plant done for? Will it re-grow leaves? Should I pull it out or start overwith a healthier plant? (This seems to be the only one affected but it's a different variety from the others.)  Â |
Here is a link that might be useful: My cinder block garden
Follow-Up Postings:
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| Unless you have deer in the backyard it looks like more than one hornworm has been working on that one. I'd put in a new plant and learn how to spot hornworms for future reference. Dave |
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That stinky little critter was there all along! I just went out in the garden and checked after looking up pics of a hornworm and he was there eating the underside of the branch - camoglaged! Then I checked one of my original pictures and he was on there when I took the pic - I just never saw him! Gardening isn't for the squeemish. I smashed that Big 'ol fat stinker!! UGH!  |
Here is a link that might be useful: My garden
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- Posted by JenTiffany none (My Page) on Sat, May 5, 12 at 19:24
| Wow! Ugh! Makes me want to go inspect all of my tomato plants!! I had some teeny little quarter of an inch long caterpillars destroy my spearmint overnight. So annoying! Go away buggies!!! (Except the good guys, of course.) :) |
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| They are what they eat - in color, at least. Makes them impossible to spot sometimes. The frass is darker green, gives them away. |
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| How are you guys posting pictures? |
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| The green segmented pilings are the remains of your tomato...after digestion by the caterpillar. Next time keep a close eye out for the eggs and the small cats before they have time to get so big. |
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- Posted by missingtheobvious Blue Ridge 7a (My Page) on Sun, May 6, 12 at 14:21
| Hormworm eggs are pearly (sometimes slightly green) and laid singly on the underside of tomato leaves. |
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| EEEEWWWW! Whenever I have hormworms, I make my husband kill them. It's a lot of laughs. He takes two 1x2's about 6 feet long and disposes of them by whacking them between the two stakes. Even he can't stand to get near them. However, I am getting good at crushing lily leaf beetles in my fingers. They are so bad that I am getting rid of more and more of my lilies. I really am tired of looking for them every day. Keski |
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| The good news is that the plants should recover. It takes a lot to kill a tomato. They won't be overly HAPPY about it, but they should live. And for finding hornworms, they fluoresce under blacklight just like scorpions. Get a handheld blacklight and go out at night to look for them and they'll stand out like, well, a glow in the dark bug. |
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- Posted by missingtheobvious Blue Ridge 7a (My Page) on Mon, May 7, 12 at 13:31
| Endymnion, where would I find a handheld blacklight? KerenR, here's how to post photos from Photobucket (a free photo-hosting service): |
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| On Google. ;) |
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- Posted by missingtheobvious Blue Ridge 7a (My Page) on Mon, May 7, 12 at 17:01
| Thank you, Endymnion. |
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