One of the nastier garden pests I've dealt with is the dread tomato hornworm. They rank high on the yuckiness scale. Back in our San Jose Garden, the tomato plants would be almost swarming with them. The kids made a sport of tossing them over the fence on to Park Avenue and listening for the squishing noises as cars rolled by.
In our Lewis Center garden we haven't had much of problem with these pests. The last few years I haven't spotted any. This year, I picked a few off the tomatoes earlier in the season. Of course, where there is one, there will be more.
This week I spotted three more of these critters, but with a difference. Each one was covered with the pupa of the Apanteles congregatus wasp.
I've left these three hornworms on the tomatoes so the wasps can mature and help keep next season's hornworms in check.
I showed them to Peter and he was fascinated by them. He had seen them on a nature show, but now they were real to him. Nature in actions.
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