These things have been munching on tomatoes, peppers, and squash. But this is too much! Eating my baby Brugs!! This guy is currently fertilizer.
Now Its War!!
Look at the nasty fat thing. It is a good thing DD spotted it or that plant would have been history by morning!
My daughters found one on my brugs today also. Guess where it is now. NEXT TO MY COMPUTER in a jar! The girls want to keep it safe from the parastic wasps. One guess what they are feeding it? What a mother does out of love!
Guess they turn into a beautiful moth. I hate to see them on a tomato plant. They can strip it overnight, same thing with a brug.
Keep that thing in a jar! It probably will make a cocoon overnight, fuzzy house with it inside. Let me know.
I found one a few years back on a tomato plant. First and only one I ever saw. It was so beautiful. I walked it down the block and let it go in a neighbors yard. LOL
The best way to get rid of caterpillars is birds. Put up lots of feeders and houses. I have not had 1 caterpillar this year.
Datdog, I sympathize. We actually raised one of these monsters one year. The moth is indeed a beautiful thing. Huge! You are right. A hornworm on your desk is beyond the bounds of motherhood.
DonnaB, I had to take my feeders down this year because of ground squirrels and hawks. I had a hawk that decided my feeder was an smorgaasbord and just sat on th fence waiting for his next meal.
i don't have a pic of the worms that turn into this beautiful moth. But one year I found a cacoon on an oak tree in the back yard and it hatcehd into this one day. The moth layed eggs which I let hatch, I then raised all of the little ones until they spun cacoons and turned into these.
I was a little younger back then and had nothing else to do to entertain myself. You should have seen all of the cacoons hanging out like clothes on my grandmothers indoor clothesline!
http://www3.islandtelecom.com/~oehlkew/zpolmoth.htm
you can't tell it from the picture but this moth is actually as big as your hand.
Its beautiful, catsmeow! We used to raise silkworms every year when my kids were little. After 6 years I gave it up.
I spose I'm lucky that I haven't had any of these monsters on my brugs. We used to get a lot of those tomato hornworms when I was growing tomatoes. The parasitic wasps did a number on them and I haven't seen any in the last couple of years.
Someone please send me some of those wasps! LOL. I have wasps but they do not bother the hornworms.