I really hate bugs

   Stepped out to admire my garden a few minutes ago and just about freaked .
A large green caterpillar type bug has almost completely denuded one of my
cayenne plants of it's leaves . Ate into several of the peppers too .
  The interweb has helped me identify this thing as a tomato hornworm , and
I'm about to read up on how to deal with this pest .
  BTW , that one is now a puddle of goo and a bit of green skin now .
--
Snag
Learning keeps
you young !

 
Yep, the infamous Tomato Horn Worm. If your garden is small it is possible
to just look at the plants early in the morning. When I see them I take a
pair of scissors and remove them from the plant and smash them with the
heal of my boot. Sometimes I just snip them in half, the green goo squirts
out :) I find that there are not many of them and I tend to get them before
any major damage. They are not far from the chewed limbs. Check every
morning. I snip off the chewed limb so it is easier to find the pest the
next morning. Look for the chewed limbs and find the bug.  In three days I
smashed nine of the insects.

In a few more days you will begin to appreciate a bug called the "Wasp".
When you start seeing the poor green bug covered by white wasp eggs that
will hatch and slowly the wasp larvae will consume the Tomato Horn Worm
while it is still alive. Oh the horrors!

Welcome to gardening :)

--
Enjoy Life... Nad R  (Garden in zone 5a Michigan)

 Nad R wrote:
...

  yes, leave those ones alone so the wasps can
do their thing.  they may do more damage before
the wasps finish them off, but it's a small
sacrifice to make to keep the life cycle of
the wasp going.  i've yet to see any worms
with wasps, but when i do i will be glad to
let them be.



  haha,

  last year was not bad for tomato hornworms,
the year before we had about 25, this season
we have not had any so far, but will start
looking.  usually we haven't seen them until
the first few weeks of August, but with you
two writing about them i'll have to go out
and take a closer look tomorrow morning to
be sure.  i looked them over pretty good
(for poo sign) yesterday and didn't see
any chewed leaves or poo nuggets on the
ground (another easy way to find them also
if you have bare earth under the plants
instead of mulch) but a second look is
worth it.


  songbird

 
Those small Horn Worms can produce rather large Poo Nuggets, but look at
how much one bug can eat :)

--
Enjoy Life... Nad R  (Garden in zone 5a Michigan)

 Nad R wrote:

  and how quickly they can go from not
being seen to suddenly showing up.

  we checked the other day and didn't see
any.  then the next day there were three
(one big one and two smaller ones) and
today there were none that we could find.


  songbird