Friday, September 9, 2011

Tomato hornworms

Over the last few weeks, I've been finding tomato plants stripped bare of leaves and half eaten green tomatoes. The other day I discovered the culprit!

(Insert picture here, oh wait camera only taking blank pictures.)

The culprits were pretty easy to identify... and pick off of the plants. Of course, they are a delicacy to the chickens who fight greedily over these juicy treats. The destruction they've been doing to the tomatoes will now pay off nicely as a protein source in our chicken eggs!

(Insert another picture, this one a glass mixing bowl full of tomato hornworms)

Other good news is that almost half of the hornworms were carrying predatory wasp eggs!

That picture is as gross as it seems, but, those wasps will take care of all manner of pesky pests!

What else is going on? Picked two quarts of tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, and tomatilloes. Most of the bounty were tomatoes that I blanched and put in a freezer bag for making future goodies. And finally, I've started my next batch of black garlic. It should be ready October 17th.