Our Little Buddy, the Tomato Worm

This is our nasty little friend. The tomato worm for the common man. Know in the scientific world as the Tomato Hornworm which becomes the Five-spotted hawkmoth. This guy came out of nowhere. The tops of my plants just never seemed to have leaves. There was never a half eaten leaf to be seen, there just were none growing. This proliphic little eater will take down a plant in a few days. Alone! A group of these can take your whole crop in just a week. Well she is here and we will keep a close eye out for any others. They are hard to spot since they are the EXACT shade of green as the stems of plants. Notice all the pods of eggs around her. That is one night of egg laying. And she ate two cherry tomatoes in addition to a half dozen tomato plant leaves!!! Now I see how these little nasties can wipe you out.

While searching out any companions to our little inmate I took the time to clean up the tomato plants. This is the amount of tomatoes we are currently taking from our plants every other day. Pictured here are Yellow Cherry Tomatoes, Husky Red Cherry, Red Grape and Yellow Globe Tomatoes. There is no shortage with just these three plants, and still we have four plants making large tomatoes that we have yet to tap. And in the back ground of this bowl of tomatoes is one of my recent summer coolers. It is a Kiwi Pear Sauvignon Blanc. This is a great summer wine that is sweet and best served very cold with a splash of club soda and friends. More on wines later.