Ever wake up one morning to this? One day your tomatoes are looking better than you’ve ever seen them and WHAMMO! Without warning, without notice, they are decimated overnight. whammo! Overnight! Hornworm damage, er, decimation
The first clue beside the obvious disappearance of leaves is little black “droppings” that look like mice turds on your tomato leaves or on the ground around your plants. hornworm poop, er, castings
First course of action in the organic garden is to understand Integrated Pest Management. Good soil and good planting practices… this, however, won’t do much to deter this little critter. And the best way to get rid of them is to simply pick them off. If you can’t stand the way to the creepy things feel, pinch off the entire little branch he is munching on. That’s what I did below… these guys came off one single plant. They had left the other four tomato plants alone for the time being. But had we not picked them off, they would have moved on eventually.
"The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest his patient in the care of the human frame, in diet and in the cause and prevention of disease" ~ Thomas Jefferson
