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?
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!
They were HUGE! About 3 inches long! And they just ate and ate and ATE!
They stripped the branches on my tomato plants in no time flat.
We found several! And they kept coming back. Again and again and again!
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.
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!