Path of Destruction

Tomato Hornworm

I ran across this photo Cindy and I shot three years ago.

Some of her tomatoes were not doing well, so she started investigating and found this suspicious looking hole in the stem of one of the failing plants.

When she sliced the stem open, she found a path of destruction throughout the stem and finally located the culprit:  a tomato hornworm.

It was unexpected because hornworms usually just chow down on the leaves and stems from above, but this one evidently decided to go inside, thus evading detection for a while.

Cindy used to dispose of them by throwing them over the hedge into the canyon, but now she just picks them off the plant and leaves them on the stones under the bird feeder.  The birds do the dirty work for us and they get a tasty snack.  Works for us.