My Outside Space Invaders!

March 20, 2014 by Laurie Nguyen 24 Comments

Last year, I was less than successful in my gardening efforts.  Sure, I harvested some tomatoes, green beans, and spinach, but it was nothing to write home about.  I didn’t even have enough to can one quart jar of tomatoes.  While some of it was my technique, much of it was due to unwelcome invaders in my garden.  Namely rabbits and caterpillars.  The rabbits were pretty tenacious.  I put up some plastic “netting” to keep them out of the backyard, and they ate through it.  Yes, ATE through it.  See?

 

Rabbits! They are crafty little creatures, aren’t they?

 

But the most pesky invaders were caterpillars.  Hornworm tomato caterpillars.  When I discovered these on my tomato plants (they really loved my heirloom plant), I just about had a heart attack!

 

Hornworm Caterpillar

 

They were HUGE!  About 3 inches long!  And they just ate and ate and ATE!

 

Here one is, munching away.

 

They stripped the branches on my tomato plants in no time flat.

 

I’d just examined the plants 2 days prior, and there were no caterpillars to be seen. Look at what they did in less than 2 days!

 

We found several!  And they kept coming back.  Again and again and again!

 

I took a picture after we found 3! I think we found 5-6 total that day.

 

My good friend was over when I found them, and we had no clue what they were, so we decided to examine them.  I promise no caterpillars were harmed during this examination.

 

First, we took pictures to show how HUGE it was. I’d never seen a caterpillar that large before.

Then we took a closer look.

There’s it’s mouth eating the leaf. It’s totally oblivious to us.

We pulled it off the leaf, so we could see it’s mouth. Look at those teeth! And those feet. This creature is designed for one thing: eating tomato plants!

 

Finally, we decided to take a video of the caterpillar.  Please keep in mind that we did not harm it in any way (although I read online that the best way to get rid of them is to step on them).  Even though the screen capture makes it appear we are poking the caterpillar with the fork, we did not.  I promise!  We merely examined them using silverware, because we didn’t want to actually touch them.  I hope it gives you a good laugh.  (The second video is a bit blurry for the first half.)  For those with sensitive ears, we do use bathroom words in the video.  Be warned!

 

Have you ever found invaders in your garden? 

Did you rid yourself of them or did you learn to live with them?