Tomato hornworms mature to become five-spotted hawkmoths. Two related hornworm caterpillars are the larval stages of two different hawkmoths. Picking caterpillars is not optional if you enjoy delicious, sun-ripened backyard tomatoes. Failure to remove hornworm caterpillars from plants guarantees they will be completely defoliated in days. Most gardeners agree: picking bloated, green worms off the tomato plants takes grit. Tomato hornworms and their closely related cousins, tobacco hornworms are huge, ornate, beautifully patterned and repulsive. I know it’s irrational but they are gross!

Picking hornworms from our tomato plants takes me from shudder to shrieks if they latch on.

Photo DAĬue the sci-fi theme music for this annual garden “harvest” in the midst of summer weeding and watering. I try not to show it but then my voice cracks. Each is capable of making me wobbly in the knees, particularly if I am not prepared for an encounter. Among them: handling huge hairy spiders, snakes that tend to coil and strike and large writhing green worms. So it becomes difficult for me to explain why a few particular creatures make me squeamish and even queasy. Noxious plants – poison ivy for example – have evolved camouflage, spines, thorns or clever chemical defenses to colonize challenging habitats, repel grazing animals or to attract specific pollinators. Spiders, snapping turtles, snakes, bats, blackflies, mosquitos - even parasites like ticks - are all animals with bad reputations but they surely serve a purpose in nature. Even slimy or creepy-crawly critters have some redeeming purpose. Like the forest, the garden provides a miniature ecosystem to study, tend and from which to learn…Īs a naturalist, I try to appreciate and understand ecological niches filled by all plant and animal life. Leaving the mid-summer forest to the hungry biting deerflies, I spend more time mowing fields or watering and weeding the vegetable garden.

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