The Tomato Hornworm

Meet our giant caterpillar, otherwise known as the tomato hornworm.

I had no idea we had a problem until I was cleaning out the garden and throwing tomato plants away. My sister pulled up while I was working, so I threw my gloves on the ground and didn't come back to them until the next day. Imagine my surprise when I tried to put my glove on and this thing was filling up an entire finger!!! Needless to say, I am pretty sure my neighbors heard my squeal.

I have never seen a tomato hornworm here in UT, but I did have them once in Las Vegas when I tried to grow tomatoes in my backyard. They are hard to see because of their color and they tend to feed on foliage inside the plant, so if your tomatoes are as overgrown as mine were, good luck finding them!

I guess he didn't do enough damage for me to notice, or perhaps again I just had too many tomatoes. I did read that marigolds planted nearby help to deter these monster pests, so my garden will be really colorful next year!

Buggy

The end of summer is always full of bugs. The flies are out of control (at least here in Lehi) and myself and my neighbors have contests to see who has the killed the most in a day... the average being around 30! Nasty.

The garden is full of critters too. We saw a katydid on our driveway last week and I wish I had taken a picture. They are so pretty! We've also seen a praying mantis, and wasps have built nests in our playset.

About a month ago I started noticing holes in my petunias, tell tale signs of caterpillars. Within weeks, all the flowers were gone. So frustrating!! 

One day I decided to catch a few culprits.  Sure enough, the plants were full of them!

My squealing assistants helped me catch them and put them in a jar for observation. Well, really it was just to keep them from ever returning to the petunias, but the kids loved watching the crawl and scooch around.

We caught about 20, but it didn't make a dent. Still no petunias. When I think about all those green caterpillars still out there, it gives me the creepy crawlies.

The same day we noticed a wasp and a grasshopper fighting over something. Yep, it was a caterpillar! We tried to tell them no fighting needed, they could take as many as they wanted!

Last night the man of the house decided it was time to get rid of the cat face spider above our porch. They are harmless to humans, but they're huge and creepy looking, and it was pooping on our porch! Who knew that spiders poop?

As we were playing at dusk we caught sight of this weird flying beetle dragging a dead spider. Ewww! As much as I'm not ready for cooler temperatures, they do have the benefit of killing off the bugs for the year!

Zucchini Trouble

One day I checked on my garden and the zucchini looked like this. It had been so healthy and productive already, I was shocked. But, I was not surprised to find this:

A squash bug. I am sure they are called that because they like squash plants, but I call them that because I squash them. When you are trying to grow an organic garden, it's the only way to control them. I am hoping that by checking every few days I can keep them from finding my other curcurbits (cucumbers, butternut squash, melons, and pumpkins). They kill plants by sucking the sap from the leaves.

This photo is unclear, but the squash bugs are mating. Arg!

Their eggs look like this, on the underside of leaves. I check every leaf and squash them with rocks or sticks. I'm too chicken to use my fingers.

You would be too if you found this when you turned a leaf over. EWWWW! It gives me the heebie jeebies. These are the newly hatched nymphs. I cut this entire leaf off and threw it away. Hopefully I can persevere and preserve a few plants!

Blossom End Rot

Have you ever gone to pick a ripe tomato, only to find the bottom is a nasty brownish-black mess? This is probably the most common gardening question I am asked so here are a few tips about it.

It's called blossom end rot, obviously because it's rot on the end of the tomato where the blossom was. Although it looks like a nasty fungus or mold, it's actually caused by uneven watering. Technically, it's a calcium deficiency caused by fluctuations in soil moisture, but basically it happens when you forget to water your tomatoes or they wilt in between waterings.

The best thing you can do for blossom end rot is start watering evenly! For me that has meant watering every day before the heat of the day.

Check out this link for more information, prevention, and treatment.