Like nature, dude....
We found a Tobacco Hornworm on the jalepeno plant. The jalepeno looks very sad and naked now, but I think it will recover. The Hornworm has been christened Charles, and lived for the last week in a pickle jar in our kitchen. We fed him leaves from the tomato plant, and he must have been the most spoiled Hornworm on the planet. I did some reading about Hornworms, and learned that they pupate underground. Crazy! Everything I read said that eventually, when he was ready, Charles would stop eating and look for dirt.
This morning, Charles stopped eating and made endless loops around the pickle jar looking for dirt. I filled another jar with dirt, and put Charles in there. He wasted no time, and dug underground. Now, if all goes well, in about 2 weeks, Charles will become a Carolina Sphinx Moth. Crazy!
I know that the Hornworms are considered pests, and most people would have just killed it... but I've never watched the whole worm-to-butterfly/moth transition up close, and its pretty cool!
The rest of the garden is trooping along. The temps here are up around 115F now, and some of the plants are starting to show the strain. Keeping them watered is becoming a real task as well. I'm hoping that at least a few will make it. We harvested a couple of small cherry tomatoes this morning, and they were awfully small. There are also strawberries blooming again.
Hang in there, garden! Good luck, Charles!
This morning, Charles stopped eating and made endless loops around the pickle jar looking for dirt. I filled another jar with dirt, and put Charles in there. He wasted no time, and dug underground. Now, if all goes well, in about 2 weeks, Charles will become a Carolina Sphinx Moth. Crazy!
I know that the Hornworms are considered pests, and most people would have just killed it... but I've never watched the whole worm-to-butterfly/moth transition up close, and its pretty cool!
The rest of the garden is trooping along. The temps here are up around 115F now, and some of the plants are starting to show the strain. Keeping them watered is becoming a real task as well. I'm hoping that at least a few will make it. We harvested a couple of small cherry tomatoes this morning, and they were awfully small. There are also strawberries blooming again.
Hang in there, garden! Good luck, Charles!