The mystery started when my lovely Datura was very nearly defoliated in a single day. I searched the leaves for grasshoppers (common in my yard, big as cigarillos), snails, or even smaller insects such as aphids or inchworms.Yeah, right. I completely missed the real culprit until last night.
This --> not-so-little monster was to blame. He's the size of my entire thumb, base to tip. And he's a hungry little bugger. As far as I can tell, he did all that eating by his own plump self.
And left this evidence under the plant:
Attractive, no? (Actually I think it's kind of interesting.) He is some type of hornworm (Sphinx or Hawkmoth) caterpillar, I am pretty sure.
Onion Patch Defect had a practice last night and I think we are starting to sound good! I am quite pleased. I think we'll try to start doing open mic nights again in November. Still could use a second guitarist/backup vocals and a percussion person, but hey — we're having fun!
What? You wanted to hear about knitting?
Well, here's the current state of the tot pullover. I've stuck in stripes of tiny scraps I had, and have now hit the midpoint of the cream-colored yarn that was left for the sleeves without having quite finished sleeve #1 (about 2" to go). I'm combing the stash for more scraps — I am sure I can make it. It'll just have to be something double or tripled up to approximately match gauge!
2 comments:
HereI am with my gardening advice again. I'm not sure what type of caterpillar this is but s/he can chow their way to the border and not even burp. Spray your garden with Bt (bacillus thuringiensis)- it's totally non-toxic to wildlife and humans. It stops the little horrors from being able to digest so they starve to death. They are very hard to find - searching for their droppings is the best way but if you miss even one your garden is toast.
Aaiiieeeee! That's giving me flashbacks to the attack of the tomato hornworms when I had a garden in South Carolina. They were really damn hard to pry off of the tomato plants, so we'd end up snipping them in half with pruners. I think we used homemade pepper-garlic spray to deter them.
Post a Comment