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


I used to like feeding the big ones to the mother hens. The hen would
take it in her beak, shake it a bit, and feed it to a chick. The chick
would try to eat it, but fail. The hen would pick it up, shake it some
more, and feed it to another chick. Same result. Eventually, the worm
would be reduced to a very tough bag full of mush. The hen would
eventually end up eating it herself.


As far as finding them... you might try a trick that Euell Gibbons uses
to find plants. Once you find one, stare at it from several angles for
a couple minutes. It's a trick to get your mind to recognize the visual
pattern. After that, it'll be easy to spot them. I used that trick
this spring to find Morels :-)


Ray