On Sun, 09 May 2004 23:26:35 -0500, Katra wrote:

In article t,
"Craig" wrote:

Hello All,

I was a little disturbed to find half my tomato plants leaves eaten off this
morning. Seems some sort of critter picked all the leaves clean off. He ate
all the tomato leaves off the plants that we not in cages, I had intended to
stake them. My neighbor had an opossum in their yard last year. Maybe it was
another opossum? I've never had anything disturb my tomato plants before. It
looks like he might have tried a pepper plant but didn't like them. Garlic,
onions, radishes, green beans, and lettuce all we untouched. Any suggestion
on how to save my remaining and replacement tomatoes?

Thanks in advance,

Craig
Staten Island, NY



Probably tomatoe hornworm...
They can be VERY rapidly destructive!

Find the critter, kill it, then most of the leaves should grow back.

You can spray the plant with liquid sevin. It biodegrades.

Alternatively, you could get a couple of ducks. They LOVE tomato hornworms and
will fight each other over hornworms. Other birds will sometimes eat the small
hornworms, but often turn up their noses(beaks?) at large ones, but ducks will
practically kill each other for hornworms, no matter how big the hornworms get.