So Much for an Organic Garden

Last summer I had my first encounter with hornworms, and I blogged about it here.  Well, they're back, and they came earlier this time around!  On Friday evening, I put Reagan to bed and went to water my garden and container plants as usual.  It's been really dry for the last couple weeks, so I've been keeping a close eye on things.  All was well in my gardening world, or so I thought...

Turns out, my eye wasn't quite sharp enough:(  On Saturday morning, Reagan and I took Tommy out after the 5k and I noticed that 3 branches of my tomato plant (the one in the container) were missing ALL of their leaves.  That meant only one thing: the dreaded hornworm has made an appearance!  It took a lot of searching because those suckers really blend in, but eventually I found it.  After Reagan's nap and some lunch, we headed to Lowe's with the hornworm safely contained in a plastic bag and sought out my friend June in the outdoor department.  I explained that I wanted to maintain my "organic" garden and asked if there was anything I could use.  She stifled a laugh and replied, "You can keep your organic garden and not have a single tomato to show for it, or you can use the poison everyone else uses."  I immediately caved and asked her to show me the magic poison that could control these beasts.  

That evening, I sprayed my plants with Bayer Advanced Vegetable & Garden Rescue to kill the existing creatures and the following morning, I liberally sprinkled Sevin-5 on my tomato and pepper plants.  Hopefully these things will be effective!  Here are a few pictures of the hornworms: 

The original culprit discovered on Saturday morning

Check out the mouth on this one!!  They can consume an entire plant in a matter of days and they double in size almost over night.  GROSS!

This guy was well on his way to eating the whole plant.  The AA battery is merely in the picture as a size reference.  His little feet were so strong, I couldn't pry the leaf from him.

Found these 4 after the initial spray

Back to the original...this guy was so hungry after spending the night in a ziploc bag, that he was eating his own poop.  Classy.

Hopefully this is the magic poison...

So much for an organic garden:(

Comments

  1. AnonymousJune 8, 2011 at 9:38 AM

    Better living through chemicals I always say. Did research on the nasty creatures. When they as big as the ones you got nuke weapons may not even be effective. However, the seven you are using is good for the little fellows that you can't see yet. There is a wasp that like to tear this guys up but then you have wasps in the garden. I'm going to start spraying my maters this weekend - prevent defense

    ReplyDelete
  2. JessicaJune 8, 2011 at 11:23 PM

    Poor little hornworm...just happy to find some food and you go and ruin his day!

    J/k, those things look pretty cool, it stinks that they destroy your plant!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Laura HollenbeckJune 8, 2011 at 11:33 PM

    That is a huge worm! I agree with Jessica, sucks that such a cool looking worm does so much destruction that you have to kill it off.

    ReplyDelete

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