SandwichShortOfAPicnic
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The hungry caterpillar?Something is eating mine and whatever it is has even plowed through the sevin dust...
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What’s going on in your garden (2025)?
- Thread starter TastyReuben
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Barriehie
Veteran
Too early for those and it must've passed from the Sevin dust since no second appearance.
Barriehie
Veteran
Got my 'Ozzie trashed' bell pepper and two Sugar Baby watermelons in the ground today.
badjak
Guru
Slugs or snail are more likely
Caterpillars eat from the side of the leaves
It's amazing the number of predators that will destroy a plant, isn't it?Slugs or snail are more likely
Caterpillars eat from the side of the leaves
I can start with leaf-eater ants, caterpillars (about the size of my thumb), birds ( the guacharacas will eat all the flowers, buds, chiles and new leaves) , little insects that will remove the green parts but leave the veins, my dog (who thinks it's fun to roll in the earth just after I've turned it over), slugs, snails,fungus,... the list goes on.
Barriehie
Veteran
The hornworms are renowned here. They can strip a tomato plant in hours when it's later in the season and they're larger and more of them. They're camouflaged well too. A blacklight really lights them up at night though.
Good thing is there are wasps that lay eggs on them and if you find one that's immobilized with eggs on it you leave it. The wasp larvae have it paralyzed as they eat it from the inside.
rascal
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Barriehie
Veteran
I've never grown any kind of melon until last year and it was these. I tossed half of them because I was picking them too early; no clue! First one was totally white inside... Figure I'll go again with what little I learned rather than change it up.
They're supposed to weigh around eight lbs. ...
A bit early but edible.
Herbaceous
Veteran
I’ve heard of people actually moving them to a specific “sacrifice” plant or to a small netted cage with some tomato leaves, just because they turn into such beautiful moths:
I had caterpillars all over my parsley last summer; I let them live (they actually didn’t do that much damage) and they rewarded me by turning into the most gorgeous black swallowtail butterflies.
Barriehie
Veteran
I put them in the edge of the woods about forty feet away and they munch on something else. The birds like to sit on the wire I run across to tie the plants up and get them. The damage they do is immediately noticeable so they're easy to control.
Herbaceous
Veteran
I’m sure the birds think of it as a delicious buffet! “Look, this human planted these nice plants to attract my favourite hornworms! How kind of them!”I put them in the edge of the woods about forty feet away and they munch on something else. The birds like to sit on the wire I run across to tie the plants up and get them. The damage they do is immediately noticeable so they're easy to control.
Yep - they're the blighters that destroy my tomatoes!
I believe that's a Death's head hawk moth. My brother used to collect the things and leave them in the airing cupboard to hatch
Herbaceous
Veteran
The moth that comes from the tomato hornworm is called a five-spotted hawk moth. They mostly occur in North America.
The death’s head hawk moth mostly occurs in Europe and Asia. They’re quite similar, but different species.
The death’s head hawk moth mostly occurs in Europe and Asia. They’re quite similar, but different species.