Doesn’t this look like a peaceful scene? Somewhere you could walk out, take a deep breath, enjoy the promise of future tomatoes? All of these are sungolds, a mighty tasty cherry-type tomato.
But evil lurks within that peaceful scene. Can you see it? A closeup might help.
Those are hornworms. Left to their own devices, they can wipe out entire plants in no time.
We pulled about two dozen off the sungolds. I was getting a bit creeped out by squishing them, so we started dropping them into this flat instead.
I’m aware that critters need to eat. But these critters do not belong on these plants. No way.
Since we don’t use the commercial pesticides, and I wasn’t about to grind down on these things any further, there was only one thing to do.
In mythology, fire is often seen as a cleansing device. That’s how I viewed this.
Fortunately, although they did quite a bit of damage…
…the plants are mature and resilient.
We’re still waiting for the first ripe fruit. Patience. Patience.
I bet Anthony Bourdain would have taken those right off your hands-complete with the fire. Yum. Roasted worms.