In article ,
(The Watcher) wrote:

On Fri, 02 Jul 2004 00:34:02 -0500, Katra
wrote:

(snip)
Now that would be nice! lol Those worms are so well hidden, they are
hard to spot even when active at night! :-P

I've noticed some people seem to have more trouble spotting them than others.
My
wife can't spot a hornworm even if it's munching on the tomato right in front
of
her. I usually go out every morning and try to check the vines for fresh
damage.
When I find some damage it usually doesn't take me too long to find the
culprit.

I can't seem to spot them at all during the day. ;-(
They disguise themselves as curled leaves in the daylight! I have to
hunt them with a flashlight after dark when they get active and are
eating further up the vines. Even then they are hard to see, but I did
pick 10 of them last night and did not see anymore tonight. The damage
seems to have been halted. I need to tie up more vines tomorrow and pick
ripe fruit, so will search the lower limbs again.


If you catch them when they're small they don't usually do too much damage,
but
one of those big ones can do a LOT of damage in one night.

I know! I often do not spot the damage until the worms are a pretty good
size. That is when the damage is obvious. sigh

My ducks love hornworms, but the chickens and guineas don't care for them
once
they get bigger than about an inch.

The chickens did eat them this morning. They beat them up until they are
soft then swallow them like spagetti! The ducks and the turkey just ate
them whole as is.

It's quite amusing. G

K.

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