In article et,
belly wrote:

On Thu, 01 Jul 2004 12:39:16 -0500 in
, Katra
graced the world with this thought:

In article et,
belly wrote:

On Thu, 01 Jul 2004 02:04:06 -0500 in
, Katra
graced the world with this thought:

Man.

Those damned things grow fast!
I just noted severe hornworm damage to my vines this morning!
Not only were the little *******s eating the vines, they've been eating
the tomatoes! Both green and nearly ripe. Lot's of destruction. sigh

Went out with a flashlight about midnight to hunt them and removed 10
very large 4" + hornworms from my vines, happily doing even more damage.

The tops of the vines are pretty well stripped and they destroyed at
least a couple dozen or more fruits.

My chickens and ducks are gonna get a treat in the morning. ;-)
I just hope I found them all!

K.

keep your eyes open for horn moths in the off season, too. It helps a
lot.

Hmmm... I don't see many sphinx moths around.
Wonder if setting up a moth trap would help prevent this?

Thanks!
K.

good question... what the hey, it can't hurt...

My aunt had a dog that would find and eat hornworms on the plant...
I've always wondered if that's trainable.

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

K.

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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.

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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So does a dusting of Sevan dust at 10 %.

Dwayne

"belly" wrote in message
nk.net...
On Thu, 01 Jul 2004 02:04:06 -0500 in
, Katra
graced the world with this thought:

Man.

Those damned things grow fast!
I just noted severe hornworm damage to my vines this morning!
Not only were the little *******s eating the vines, they've been eating
the tomatoes! Both green and nearly ripe. Lot's of destruction. sigh

Went out with a flashlight about midnight to hunt them and removed 10
very large 4" + hornworms from my vines, happily doing even more damage.

The tops of the vines are pretty well stripped and they destroyed at
least a couple dozen or more fruits.

My chickens and ducks are gonna get a treat in the morning. ;-)
I just hope I found them all!

K.

keep your eyes open for horn moths in the off season, too. It helps a
lot.

In article ,
"Dwayne" wrote:

So does a dusting of Sevan dust at 10 %.

Dwayne


I'd heard that even 10% sevin dust would have no effect on the larger
worms. They are just too damned big for it to do any good?

Also, Texas has been getting tons of rain. Sevin is useless when that
is going on.

But thanks anyway! :-)

K.

--
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http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...user id=katra

In article et,
belly wrote:

My aunt had a dog that would find and eat hornworms on the plant...

My cat thinks the moths are great toys.

--
http://yosemitenews.info/

In article , ()
wrote:

In article et,
belly wrote:

My aunt had a dog that would find and eat hornworms on the plant...

My cat thinks the moths are great toys.



lol I can imagine... :-)

They don't turn into those "hummingbird moths" that fertilize my moon
vines do they???

I think they are just the regular sphynx moths?

K.

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In article ,
Katra wrote:

My cat thinks the moths are great toys.

lol I can imagine... :-)

Unfortunately she brings them into the house to play. But they are a lot
better than some of the other "toys" she brings us

--
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In article , ()
wrote:

In article ,
Katra wrote:

My cat thinks the moths are great toys.

lol I can imagine... :-)

Unfortunately she brings them into the house to play. But they are a lot
better than some of the other "toys" she brings us


rolls eyes I understand all too well...

Ever stepped in mouse guts in bare feet???

K.

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"Katra" wrote in message
...


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


I used to find them by shaking the plant and listening for the ticking
sound that they make. I doubt if it would work in the city, though.


Ray

"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

In article ,
"Ray" wrote:

"Katra" wrote in message
...


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


I used to find them by shaking the plant and listening for the ticking
sound that they make. I doubt if it would work in the city, though.


Ray




Ugh. I've heard that you can hear them chewing... but I can't shake the
vines. They are all tied up to either fencing or poles, and I might also
shake the fruits off!

But thanks anyway. :-)

K.

--
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On Fri, 02 Jul 2004 04:27:13 -0500, Katra
wrote:

In article ,
"Dwayne" wrote:

So does a dusting of Sevan dust at 10 %.

Dwayne


I'd heard that even 10% sevin dust would have no effect on the larger
worms. They are just too damned big for it to do any good?

Also, Texas has been getting tons of rain. Sevin is useless when that
is going on.

But thanks anyway! :-)

K.

The rain has stopped, but the sevin still seems like a really bad idea
to me as it kills indiscriminately beneficials, pollinators, and
probably a few pests as well. Since my neighbors also keep bees, it
is out of the question on those grounds as well.

In article ,
B.Server wrote:

On Fri, 02 Jul 2004 04:27:13 -0500, Katra
wrote:

In article ,
"Dwayne" wrote:

So does a dusting of Sevan dust at 10 %.

Dwayne


I'd heard that even 10% sevin dust would have no effect on the larger
worms. They are just too damned big for it to do any good?

Also, Texas has been getting tons of rain. Sevin is useless when that
is going on.

But thanks anyway! :-)

K.

The rain has stopped, but the sevin still seems like a really bad idea
to me as it kills indiscriminately beneficials, pollinators, and
probably a few pests as well. Since my neighbors also keep bees, it
is out of the question on those grounds as well.


I also have a large number of spiders that spin beautiful webs every
night in my tomato vines, including one very large, very pregnant Yellow
Garden Spider. :-) Those are my favorite spiders!

http://www.fcps.k12.va.us/StratfordL.../black_and_yel
low_argiope.htm

Huge and colorful, they spin VERY large webs. One of my few welcome
predators that is actually as diurnal as the Carolina Anoles. The vast
majority of my orb weavers are nocturnal.

Looks like I got all the worms by just hand picking with a flashlight
that night. Only took me about 1/2 hour. I've not seen any "fresh"
damage at this point.

As tempting as sevin is, I really don't want to kill my spiders. :-(
If that big yellow gal hangs out there long enough, odds are she might
catch a few of those moths. lol She is nearly big enough I think to
handle one.

Thanks everyone for the input!

K.

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"Katra" wrote in message
...

[...]

I also have a large number of spiders that spin beautiful webs every
night in my tomato vines, including one very large, very pregnant
Yellow
Garden Spider. :-) Those are my favorite spiders!


http://www.fcps.k12.va.us/StratfordL...s/black_and_ye
l
low_argiope.htm

Huge and colorful, they spin VERY large webs. One of my few welcome
predators that is actually as diurnal as the Carolina Anoles. The vast
majority of my orb weavers are nocturnal.

We used to catch grasshoppers and carefully place them in the web of a
garden spider (called a 'banana spider' by the local kids). It was
interesting to watch the spider crawl to the hapless grasshopper and
wrap it in silk.


Looks like I got all the worms by just hand picking with a flashlight
that night. Only took me about 1/2 hour. I've not seen any "fresh"
damage at this point.

I never tried picking them off at night. We used to look for the
damage, then hunt down the bug. Also, they start clicking if you shake
the vine a bit.

Alas, I have seen very few of the critters in the past several years.
We'll see how many there are near our new place. The chickens and
guineas are ready.


Ray