You always win😊

To us in NC tobacco fields these are tobacco worms. Disposal, just dash them on the ground, however to "celebrate" the first one(s) found for the year we tossed them down the tractor exhaust...wait 2-4 seconds rev the engine high and watch the cooked worm get spit out end over end a few feet above the exhaust.

I think you’re being overly critical of yourself. The lighting seemed fine.

Didn’t notice

Hornworm hell I like it

I had a hand raised Bard-rock years ago that I would release into the garden every afternoon for just such duties.

I have also seen ducks used successfully in gardens, to feast on garden pests. They don't hurt the plants. Plus the chicken / duck poop adds as fertilizer. Its just messy....

we have a hen that had the top half of her beak torn off by a rat, just at the nostrils... so she needs a bucket of feed with at least 2 inches of feed so she can actually eat. sitting on the couch, 3 times a day, boooork bok bok bok... waltzes in the door, dogs learnt to ignore her but chase the others away... has a stack of books wedged into the opening so the dogs dont eat it. if she comes in and its closed... boooork bok bok... comes looking for someone to open it up...

@@paradiselost9946 unofficially, it's the "kitchen chicken" around my place!

Haha! 60 year old native Texas Redneck! I agree whole heatedly, they are creepy, and devistateing... A lit ciggerett or cigar doles out some satisfaction, would you believe they spit as well, put a cigarette OUT! Sheeze, I find them hard to grab, (willies) but a pair of kitchen scissors does a great job! Peace, and happy harvesting!

I had a basil plant planted between two tomato plants. Unfortunately one of the plants still got a hornworm “infestation”.

Marigolds work too

FRost killed my marigolds, and the enormous basil bush did nothing to save my seven tomato plants, they were chewed down to the stems. Now, I have chickens....and the tide has turned for the hornworms. Mwa ha ha ha ha!

@@naomihatfield3015lol, you evil villain, you! In all seriousness, do the chickens do a good job of getting the bugs without destroying the crops? I am finally getting chickens and looking for info on how much to let them roam the garden. Thx!

@@corinne1691 do not give chicken free reign in the garden….their version of “gardening” is considerably more…inventive…than yours….and they enjoy many of the same vegetables that you do. I pull the hornworms off and feed them to the chickens….hornworms are high in calcium, and the birds love them.

😮

Gee, I didn't know about this! My tomatoes suffered greatly this summer from hornworms and I'm going to try this next year should I have the problem again. Thanks!

I did not know this… must get a better UV flash light now!

​@@user-ll3me5xh6s Not UV...Black Light.

Yep. Works good. I hate hornworm

Absolutely works. You'll see all kinds of other crazy bugs too.

AWSOME TIP cause boy are they perfectly colored to blend right in with the tomato plants!!!

Genius. I actually have a lot of nightshade; I wish my other plants would reseed as readily. I love the idea of relocating my hornworms there.

Tomatoes are expensive in California?? That’s news to me. I would have thought the opposite. Is it because they need so much water?

@@Emiliapocalypse Drought conditions and inflation contribute to the costs. If only it rained here more often.

You can also use the black light to detect bodily fluids at a crime scene, at least they do on TV…

That's what I did when I spied one trimming back my tomatoes. Chickens loved the horn worms and u did initially make the mistake of feeding them the ones with the cocoons on them thinking it was hornworm eggs. Black light makes them glow up a neon green and easy to find and dispatch.

The first one I ever saw was covered with those cocoons too. I thought it was something out of a Lewis Carroll nightmare.

Normally I catch them pretty fast too...though there was one that got past me a couple months ago that left the biggest mounds of caterpillar crap that I have ever seen

I forgot about the Tell, Tell, sign of horn worms is there elephant size loafs of poop!

I had read that but couldn't find any locally. It was probably too late in the season

Hard to find locally but worth it. Had an outbreak of THWs in August, one application and none the rest of the season. It really works and only affects caterpillars.

Your Grams was a master of the garden ..I've noticed that they do make a clicking sound when I've made my presence known after spotting them never thought to do that.. great tip

You must have bad hearing or I’m more deaf than I thought because I can’t hear anything. 😮

Awesome info, thanks!

Well fed. 🤣

I'd rather enjoy the presence of a hummingbird moth than a garden tomato 😂

@@JaRule6Yeah, me too. But unfortunately, hook worms just turn into some huge ugly moth instead.

lmao it does!

Or an Alfred Hitchcock film. Lol

The tobacco horn work and tomato horn worm are almost identical aside from the stripes

Tobacco worms make good fishing bait. You cut em up in pieces and turn them inside out and put em on the hook, like you do catalpa worms. And like catalpa worms you can freeze them and use them later. When I was a kid and teenager working in the tobacco field, we would catch the worms and give them to the old fella driving the tractor in the field. We'd catch him crickets too. Maybe you can cut back on the bean roller damage by planting at a different time. Some bugs have a short period of time in which they are more prevalent. I used to grow a lot of cowpea/southern pea varieties and one year I tried planting some several weeks earlier than I did in the past. They grew fine but almost overnight they got attacked by the Mexican bean beetle. The plants looked like they'd been shot with birdshot. I planted more peas at the same time I'd been previously doing and had no problems. I found out later that the beetles had a certain time of the year that they were out, and that even though the weather was favorable to grow them, that's why no one planted them too early.

Also I was bitten by a Hawk Moth as a kid, fuck them. 😂

🤣👍

I've heard that too, and thought about trying to do a video on it, but had no idea how to record in the dark lol

@@libertyhomestead Just wear your red white polka-dot apron and a white bow in your hair. We'll know it's you. That's all we need to see. Tomato worms are so gross! Seeing them, picking them off, stomping on them, seeing their Vulcan green blood! Just do a YT short video IF it works.

I did not make the connect until you just mention it. I was paying more attention to the garden and the kid.

I looked it up, very interesting. Thank you so much for the info.

Also the humming bird hawk moth is the adult of these worms. Search for Macroglossum stellatarum@@corinne1691

My experience with marigolds is that they become magnets for the slugs ..... and are defoliated faster than the hornworms are doing the tomatoes!

I’ve heard hornworms love dodgeball! Can’t wait to let mine play too!

@@corinne1691 Funny, I've heard the same thing.... as long as the ball is solid like a rock... they like the challenge and excitement. ; )

Cut back on the nitrogen; it's why there's an aphid problem. Over fertilizing can be just as detrimental as under fertilizing. And use soapy water to spray the aphids on your plants. Do it as a preventive, especially at seasonal temperature changes. (Spring and Fall) Aphids are not much affected by inter-planting commonly believed insect control companion plants, except that they serve to use up the excess nitrogen in the soil. Next year, get yourself some Praying Mantis. They are workhorses in the garden at keeping insect population under control. Just make sure after a morning in the garden to check your clothing; those guys like to hitch rides into the house where they will not survive without food.😂

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

My preferred ally against horn worms is BT (Bacillus thuringiensis). All I see are tiny dead hornworms in my pepper and eggplant beds.

Haha I'll have to get some

I love it! Was a gift from our neighbors