Well, Mountain Man came to visit today, and he was looking at our vegetable garden when he spotted some defoliation we hadn’t noticed. “You’ve got a worm,” he declared. And indeed we did have a worm—a tomato hornworm, to be exact—a plump green caterpillar whose ambition in life is to eat tomato plants and turn into a hummingbird moth.
MM: There’s your worm, TS. What are you going to do with it?
TS: Absolutely nothing. I’m in charge of watering; DH can be in charge of worms.
MM: So how do you guys want to dispose of these worms? You know, you can save them for the grandkids so they can watch them turn into moths.
DH: Eh?
MM: Or you can squish ‘em, or cut ‘em in half with a pair of pruning shears. Grasshoppers actually smile at you while you’re doing ‘em.
TS: Ewww! If I did stuff like that to a caterpillar, I’d be worrying about how to notify its next of kin.
So, except for the ongoing adventure of seeking and destroying the tomato worms, and my angst at harming even the tiniest of creatures, our garden is doing well. We had some wonderful salads with our lettuce and arugula, and we can’t wait to taste our first tomato! I hope the little pests leave some for us.
2 comments:
A couple of years ago, one of those nasty creatures claimed squatters' rights on a beautiful pepper plant that I was growing in a container. I was so traumatized by my encounters with the thing (I swear it reared back and struck out at me)that I let it have the plant. I vote for letting the DHs cut them in half and squish them for good measure.
Oh, now, the only response I have for that is "Ewww!" I guess next time I get out there with the Sevin dust I'd better sprinkle it on the peppers, too.
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