My Run In With The THW

This is the first year I have ever had this major problem in my garden. My husband says he thinks he remembers us having issues like this before, but I do not. 

It all started at the beginning of last week. I noticed my plants were looking really rough. 

They had looked like they were actually coming back after the heat of the summer and then it looked like many of the leaves and branches had been eaten off. And there was quite a bit of dead branches. 

I looked over the plants and did not notice any bugs on them and just did not know what was going on. Then I decided to go through and cut off all the dead branches and such. I was hoping that once I pruned the dead stuff that it would help the plant to recover easier. 

That is when I found them! 

Tomato Horn Worms

These are just several of the worms I found. 

I looked up information about them and found out the name of them - Tomato horn Worms and that they turn into Hawk Moths. You can look up images for Hawk Moths and they are really a cool looking moth. But what ever - I was very tired of them gobbling up my plants. So I got busy...looking and killing Tomato Horn Worms. By the way ~ They are awfully gross to kill. 

I watched a video to learn more about this worm and found out that they double in size daily - no wonder I had some big, fat worms. It was also said that your chickens would enjoy eating the worms. Oh good! I thought - that would stop me from having to kill them. Only problem is that the bigger the worm was the less likely my chickens wanted to eat them. Even some of the smaller ones some of my chickens peck at them a bit and then go the other way like they must not taste good. But thankfully one of them will usually pick it up and take off with it. I have to pay attention because I do not want to let them live. 

Every single day I have had to check my plants and what I have found is that it is hard to see these worms unless you are really closely looking at the plants. 

They tend to like the top, fresh foliage - because it is new and tender. But I have found them all over. 

I also learned that they poop green pellets- they were even shown on the video - but I have looked around my plants and I haven't seen the poop myself here anyway. 

So I have just become vigilant and really checked on my plants very carefully every day. And I have usually found at least 1 or 2 worms a day. Some of my plants are looking so pretty - other than the areas where the damage is and I would like to keep these plants doing well. I should have another good crop of tomatoes soon! 

I don't remember ever having and issue with these worms before, but I will never forget them and what damage they can do if they are left to do as they please. 

Oh! And by the way - these little buggers do have horns - little orange horns! I will see about getting a close up so you can see them better. You can kind of see it in the photos - but I would love to get a close up photo to share! 

Do you guys have gardens going and how are they doing?