Hornworms

[seedcorn]

Picked about 8 tomatoes, was so happy until...........saw stems w/no leaves. As is usual, I couldn't find them. I get them every year, so guess it's time. I sprayed all of the tomatoes down w/soapy water with a little foliar feed. I was hoping to find some and feed them to the chicks. Altho I've never had any luck getting chickens to eat them.

Any suggestions?

 

[HunkieDorie23]

Picked about 8 tomatoes, was so happy until...........saw stems w/no leaves. As is usual, I couldn't find them. I get them every year, so guess it's time. I sprayed all of the tomatoes down w/soapy water with a little foliar feed. I was hoping to find some and feed them to the chicks. Altho I've never had any luck getting chickens to eat them.

Any suggestions?

If you look at the ground around around your tomatoes you will see some dark brown droppings from the worms. This is how I track them down. Good luck.

 

[digitS']

If the chicks won't eat them, the chickadees will!

I haven't had to kill a hornworm since I started growing sunflowers in the garden. The sunflowers are visited constantly by house finches, chipping sparrows and chickadees. It starts well before they have mature seeds.

It is almost as tho' these birds are staking out a claim to the sunflowers. Anyway, they are major caterpillar eaters during their nesting season the ornithologists tell us.

I began to suspect their help when there were just a couple of sunflowers. I noticed hornworm damage to a tomato growing near them. Before I could get out there with the spray, the plant began to heal and grow new leaves. That was about 7 years ago. I've had lots of sunflowers in the garden ever since and haven't seen a hornworm.

Steve

 

[beavis]

Interesting.

Hoodat most likely won't have chickadees helping him out where he is located in San Diego county, but house finches galore, will a small amount of Chipping Sparrows.

The only chickadee we get here in San Diego county usually frequents the mountains and is called...Mountain Chickadee.

I always plant sunflowers near my tomatoes, haven't seen a hornworm yet, but I never made a correlation between sunflower/bird/hornworm before.

We do have an abundance of Lesser Goldfinches that seem to like to feed on the basal sections of the sunflower leaves.

 

[hoodat]

I planted some Mammoth sunflower and got very cool reception from the birds. No one came to the party. Next year I think I'll plant something like teddy bear sunflowers that have smaller seeds.
Haven't seen any house finches yet. in fact I've only seeen a half dozen or so species that seem interested in my garden.
A sooty flycatcher moved in recently. He flies back and forth back and forth between the East and West fences. It's fun to see him snatch a fly in mid air. I hope he leaves my bees alone.

 

[bcallaha]

If you can find some BT, that worked for me.

Brad

 

[cwhit590]

I found about half a dozen hornworms on 1 of my tomato plants last night....:/ They are hard to spot! Had to sit there and stare at the leaves a few minutes before I saw them....hopefully I got them all.

I have sunflowers in the garden but they are not blooming yet, and they aren't next to my tomatoes....maybe I'll try planting a few smaller ones by the tomatoes next year.

 

[digitS']

I am a fan of the birds and even adjust to the quail eating my ripe tomatoes and taking dustbaths in my freshly seeded beds of lettuce. . .

The English Sparrows have their role . . . beyond eating my bok choy and lettuce transplants . . . I am always in a sweat to get plants out of the greenhouse and onto sawhorses in the yard so that the sparrows can go thru them. They do a much better job of getting rid of the aphids than I can do in the greenhouse.

There are very few birds that feed their nestlings seeds or other plant material. Insects are the food of choice. I was even reading an abstract of a study that indicated that the shape of chick strarter feed can make a difference in how much they eat. Yep, if it looks, somehow, more like a bug the chicks eat it readily and eat more of it . . .

Steve

 

[Holachicka]

I read somewhere that if you take a black light and go out at night, the worms will be easier to spot because the white dots will be highlighted... Don't know if it works or not, I haven't tried it yet!

 

[vfem]

I found about half a dozen hornworms on 1 of my tomato plants last night....:/ They are hard to spot! Had to sit there and stare at the leaves a few minutes before I saw them....hopefully I got them all.

I have sunflowers in the garden but they are not blooming yet, and they aren't next to my tomatoes....maybe I'll try planting a few smaller ones by the tomatoes next year.

Its like staring at those posters they used to have at the mall, if you stand and look long enough you start to see them.