Pests Invading the Farm August 6, 2013

Around here you can always count on tomato horn worms arriving on the plants. They so match the plants it is difficult to find them. The secret is to look on the leaves below a spot where leaves are missing and when you see the poop, you know the worm or worms are somewhere above. These insects can see you before you see them and they can go completely still so you can't see them. As soon as you touch one, that mouth whips around to try and bite you. I find it best to use a long nose pliers to pick the insect and squash it in one motion.

Here again is a constant pest here in the summer. Some summers there are just a few thousand, every so many years there seems to be a million of them. They are spotty too, there may be thousands on our plot and an eighth mile away there are none reported. There are no ways to eliminate them. They are constantly on the move from one plant to another and there are always more on the way.