Tomato Drama

I went outside yesterday like I always do to inspect and love on my beloved tomato plants. All was fine except I noticed on the one on my patio that the leaves were gone at the top of the plant! WTF! What could possibly have eaten my plant?

I was briefly drawn out of my depressive state of mind.

I got to looking and this is what I found:

This is what we in the south call a Tomato Worm. It will eat an entire plant over night. Bastard! I was really kind of scared of it. I flicked it off with a stick and told Lucky to "get it." She sniffed it and walked off. Fat lot of good she was. She will chew up the rug in front of the door, but she wont kill a monster tomato worm.

So I was stuck with trying to figure out what to do about the bastard.

I didnt want to stomp it because it would squish under my foot. That is just to gross for me. I got a stick and it clamped down on it. I know--what if it jumped off the stick and clamped down on me? I carried it up to the office to my boss and he did something with it. He also told me where there is one there would be others. Great. Just great. I dont like to deal with an insect that has the ability to eat an entire plant in one night.

So my tomatoes are starting to get ripe. And that makes me happy. I have taken care of these plants since they were seeds. Some of the tomatoes are small but there are a couple big ones too. I bet I got 50 tomatoes on those plants. And the plants are still blooming which means more tomatoes. I will probably have tomatoes until the fall.

That is if the Tomato Worm's siblings do not return.