On Thu, 28 Jul 2011 02:16:43 +0000 (UTC), Nad R
wrote:

"Snag" wrote:
Stepped out to admire my garden a few minutes ago and just about freaked .
A large green caterpillar type bug has almost completely denuded one of my
cayenne plants of it's leaves . Ate into several of the peppers too .
The interweb has helped me identify this thing as a tomato hornworm , and
I'm about to read up on how to deal with this pest .
BTW , that one is now a puddle of goo and a bit of green skin now .

Yep, the infamous Tomato Horn Worm. If your garden is small it is possible
to just look at the plants early in the morning. When I see them I take a
pair of scissors and remove them from the plant and smash them with the
heal of my boot. Sometimes I just snip them in half, the green goo squirts
out I find that there are not many of them and I tend to get them before
any major damage. They are not far from the chewed limbs. Check every
morning. I snip off the chewed limb so it is easier to find the pest the
next morning. Look for the chewed limbs and find the bug. In three days I
smashed nine of the insects.

In a few more days you will begin to appreciate a bug called the "Wasp".
When you start seeing the poor green bug covered by white wasp eggs that
will hatch and slowly the wasp larvae will consume the Tomato Horn Worm
while it is still alive. Oh the horrors!

Welcome to gardening

Last year I caught this swallowtail caterpillar devouring my dill.
Note carefully the tiny critter afflicting my destroyer. You can see
it about half way down the "spine".

http://i54.tinypic.com/2whnj1j.jpg

Still, this caterpillar was so beautiful it was difficult to hate it,
even though it took out a lot of dill.

Boron