Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for May 20, 2018

Yes, they ARE that big!!

Those things are some ugly.

Well, they’re even. He calls her for spiders.

Potato bugs are even bigger.

About six feet long…..

no, maybe ten.

I really don’t stick around to measure them.

Some wasps lay their eggs on the tomato worm. Not a pretty sight.

♬It’s so nice to have a man around the house…♬

First time I found one I laughed til I cried because all I could think of was the character from Alice in Wonderland, the caterpillar smoking hash on a leaf with all his shoes….

You cab also hear them chewing before you see them.

Tomato or tobacco worm?

Gah! I hate tomato worms!

I know that feeling. I absolutely HATE seeing them.

Which is worse, Tomato worm of Ear worm?

Tomato Hornworm actually!

Garden spiders are the worst!

I like Bacillus Thurengiensis. This powder is a bacteria that, when dusted onto a plant, stops hornworms at their first bite, and in a few hours they are dead. This bacteria is completely harmless to people. You could sprinkle it on your breakfast cereal without ill effect.

My husband isn’t planting tomatoes this year. It’s pointless since the deer even jumped the electrified fence to eat them last year. The farmer’s market is looking pretty good.

Why is it that educated, liberated, chocolate eating, 21st Century women that demand to serve in military combat units still need a man to deal with an insect?

Please don’t kill the bright green and black with yellow spots caterpillars. they are the offspring of Black Swallowtail butterflies. They love parsley and carrot tops – plant some- not too late.

Dog, I hate those things. I am out in the beds every day checking and clearing them out when I find them. But, that’s what tending a garden is all about. That and homemade spaghetti sauce, tomato soup and other things along with just great tomatoes.

My grandmother would go out in the late evening (when it was just getting dark) with a pair of scissors and snip every hornworm she could see. Worked pretty well, so that’s basically what I did when grown and gardening – I loved fresh tomatoes.

Last year I enjoyed pulling them off what remained of the tomato plants and flinging them in random directions, including the roof. I figured they might return, might decide to molt, might find some other meal, but wouldn’t be back soon.