August 10th, 2010: Caterpillar?

Tobacco Hornworm

Dodge and his new pets

So we found some 'caterpillars' eating away at my poor tomato plants. Five of them! Dodge had to catch them and put them in a jar with some leaves to eat. We decided to look them up and see what kind of butterflies they will be. Well, they aren't even caterpillars. They are Tobacco Hornworms and they don't even turn into butterflies. They become Five Spotted Hawkmoths after burrowing in the ground. They don't even make a cocoon! Talk about spoiling all the fun. They pretty much just destroy tomato and pepper plants and then become big nasty moths to lay more eggs on your poor plants to start the whole process all over again. Good news is, planting marigolds will keep them away. Reminds me of 'Grant'-pa Gray. He always planted marigolds in the yard. Guess we better get Dodge a gold fish since they are no threat to the garden.