| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| KYgurlsrbest |
Posted - Aug 07 2008 : 08:54:41 AM
and leaves them? First time with the garden I've ever had a pest other than bugs....this little (or big) thing is very particular, as it only takes chunks out of the red tomatoes and not the green, while they're right on the vine!!! I haven't seen anyone there, so I'm not sure...but it seems to be nocturnal. Coon? Deer? Possum?
Farmgirl Sister #80, thanks to a very special farmgirl from the Bluegrass..."She was built like a watch, a study in balance ... with a neck and head so refined, like a drawing by DaVinci"...
NY Newsday sportswriter Bill Nack describing filly, Ruffian.
http://www.buyhandmade.org/ |
| 25 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| StarMeadow |
Posted - Aug 13 2008 : 10:46:08 AM
Brenda, horn worm is on page 2. Someone else told me that chickens are quite fond of them too. Wish I had a chicken. |
| Homespun Livin |
Posted - Aug 13 2008 : 10:32:26 AM
Okay, the pic of the moth I could see. A tomato hornworm huh? Chickes really like those buggers.
"Love one another." |
| KYgurlsrbest |
Posted - Aug 13 2008 : 08:26:28 AM
Ok, I had to laugh, Linda, about those little turtles with tomato juice all over their heads. I would have left them alone, too, I guess. Without any rain, and the temperatures being so cool in the evenings, we haven't had many red ones this week, so no one is interested!!!
My that tomato worm is interesting--and the moth, actually pretty. I haven't had any issues with those that I know of, but then...there's always a first for everything, right?
Farmgirl Sister #80, thanks to a very special farmgirl from the Bluegrass..."She was built like a watch, a study in balance ... with a neck and head so refined, like a drawing by DaVinci"...
NY Newsday sportswriter Bill Nack describing filly, Ruffian.
http://www.buyhandmade.org/ |
| StarMeadow |
Posted - Aug 13 2008 : 08:22:30 AM
That my dear ladies is a Tomato Hornworm! See the little "horn" on his tail end? Apparently decorative but very sensitive. These babies burrow into your garden to wait out the winter. When they hatch they are these huge furry moths.
Who, then lay eggs in your tomato leaves and then the larvae hatch and devour your plants! If you see one of these and it appears to have big white "rice-shaped" things sticking to it all over, leave it! Those are a type of small wasp larvae who eat the horn worm after hatching before it can turn into a moth. It's some sore of parasitic relationship... I guess I'm going to have to get crazy with the hoe in the fall when I put this garden plot to "bed" to try and chop up any of the buggers that have already gone to ground! I've never seen anything like this in my life. It was HUGE! (but very cool to watch) We kept him in a jar for a couple of days. He ate and ate and ate... then all of a sudden died. I felt bad but I didn't really know what else to do with it because I didn't want it back out in the yard anywhere to turn into a moth and find NEXT year's tomatoes.... |
| AuntPammy |
Posted - Aug 13 2008 : 08:02:32 AM
Wow. When I was little I use to go out and pick those tomato worms off with my dad. We would put them in a can and then he would take them to a pond down the road a ways and feed the fish. Yuck....my sympathies are with you.
Let's dance in the rain and play in the puddles under the rainbows.
www.auntpsalmostheaven.com |
| Homespun Livin |
Posted - Aug 13 2008 : 07:53:28 AM
I couldn't make out the picture. What was it?
"Love one another." |
| tribalcime |
Posted - Aug 13 2008 : 02:57:32 AM
whew! he is a monster isnt he !
LIfe is a witch ~~~ and then ya fly !! My blogspot .http://tribalwitch.blogspot.com/ |
| StarMeadow |
Posted - Aug 12 2008 : 8:09:25 PM
Here's what was eating mine! BTW, he's 4 inches long!
 |
| SheilaC |
Posted - Aug 12 2008 : 7:09:56 PM
My vote is three year old girls! That's what happens to veggies in my garden (left on the plant with one or two bites taken out of them. . .tomatoes, peppers, green beans, even a cucumber!) |
| nampafarmgirl |
Posted - Aug 12 2008 : 2:47:43 PM
well at least your not dealing with alligators like some of our farm sisters are! I have a simalr problem so no more eating right off the bush for me. i think mine is from Morning Doves. I catch them flying out of the area.
kim |
| tribalcime |
Posted - Aug 12 2008 : 12:20:10 PM
YOu can keep snails down by not watering at night . They use the water to travel on . Or you can lay a small board down and dampen under it and you should get snails under it at night. I went "snail hunting" and got 16 total of them . They were huge slugs --thick and long as your finger . THey had hidden by my back porch where the hose was kept and would travel about 4 ft at night to the green beans. Once i caught them all the beans grew great.
LIfe is a witch ~~~ and then ya fly !! My blogspot .http://tribalwitch.blogspot.com/ |
| tribalcime |
Posted - Aug 12 2008 : 12:16:48 PM
If you are city area even you will get any wild critter just about that will eat them .They are starved for food about now .I have had squirels--chipmunks --coons and possums and groundhogs and rabbits in last 3 years that like to eat my tomatoes when they are red and ripe. I live trap and have used poison bait at times to get rid of them. I am in suburbs of lexington and the critters travel the sewer lines. The groundhogs will eat the whole plant also once tomatoes are gone. I had one several yrs ago tear up plants and drag them off under the fence to where ever he lived . Last year i had a total of 53 coons and possums and over 20 squirrels that i live trapped and took out to country. My neighbors and me kept a score board of them all. This year though the coons and possums are wiser and avoid the live trap cept for a few really young ones.
LIfe is a witch ~~~ and then ya fly !! My blogspot .http://tribalwitch.blogspot.com/ |
| wooliespinner |
Posted - Aug 08 2008 : 10:33:58 AM
Jonni,
I have had the same trouble for years. I finally found the culprit one morning. It was box turtles. They would eat the tomatoes closest to the ground that they could reach amd eat the bottoms right off the ripe ones. One morning I went out earlier than usual and there the 5 of them were. They had tomato juice all over their heads. It was kinda funny seeing them all together like that.
I picked them up and took them a little further from the house. About 3 days later a few of them were back I know this because I marked them with a marker plus a new recruit was with them. We were in a drought and I knew they were thirsty and hungry. So I just left them alone.
good luck
Linda
Raspberry Run Farm
Nubian Dairy Goats |
| eskimobirdlady |
Posted - Aug 07 2008 : 10:40:13 PM
when i was a little girl my dad picked up a very large snapping turlte off the road. we put it in a box in teh back seat of the car and went to visit my grandparents. when we came out the box was over turned and the turtle was under the seat!i think dad lured him out wiht the use of a sturdy branch which the turtle bit down on hard enough for dad to lift him out of the car! that was the last time dad picked up a snapping turtle and put it in the car!
geesh i must be OLD or else packed alot of living in to my life as i seem to have stories for everything! lol
peace connie in alaska |
| Aunt Jenny |
Posted - Aug 07 2008 : 9:28:06 PM
Okay...I would take turtles, frogs, snails, grasshoppers OR terrapins over snakes for sure.
We used to see box turtles on the road (getting the sunshine I guess) about 45 min from where I lived in CAlif..but never here...Fun how everyplace has different stuff. I have never even seen a snapping turtle. Utah isn't known for them...haha.
Jenny in Utah
Proud Farmgirl sister #24
Inside me there is a skinny woman crying to get out...but I can usually shut her up with cookies
http://www.auntjennysworld.blogspot.com/ visit my little online shop at www.auntjenny.etsy.com |
| KYgurlsrbest |
Posted - Aug 07 2008 : 8:57:27 PM
We do, Jenny--we live right near a creekbed, and in the last few weeks there seems to be an abundance of toads, frogs and the like, and I see box turtles and snapping turtles often, so it stands to reason a terrapin would be around here, too. I'm just glad the snakes seem to have taken a hiatus :)
Farmgirl Sister #80, thanks to a very special farmgirl from the Bluegrass..."She was built like a watch, a study in balance ... with a neck and head so refined, like a drawing by DaVinci"...
NY Newsday sportswriter Bill Nack describing filly, Ruffian.
http://www.buyhandmade.org/ |
| Homespun Livin |
Posted - Aug 07 2008 : 7:54:45 PM
Oh Jenny!! You should see the snappin turtles that saunter into my yard. They like to lay eggs in our back yard for some reason. A few summers ago I found a very large one headed straight for my dog. When they clamp down, they don't turn loose!!
"Love one another." |
| Aunt Jenny |
Posted - Aug 07 2008 : 7:08:52 PM
So there are just wild turtle there? Wow Jonni...I have never lived anyplace with turtles or terrapins. And I get annoyed with grasshoppers!!
Jenny in Utah
Proud Farmgirl sister #24
Inside me there is a skinny woman crying to get out...but I can usually shut her up with cookies
http://www.auntjennysworld.blogspot.com/ visit my little online shop at www.auntjenny.etsy.com |
| StarMeadow |
Posted - Aug 07 2008 : 6:47:17 PM
I have not spied a snail OR a turtle. In fact, now that I think about it, I haven't seen either of those around here in a very long time... We do have chipmunks, however. They are pretty quick! I didn't even think about them till someone in the thread mentioned squirrels. Most people have moles...we have chipmunks. <sigh> I haven't seen them on that side of the house though, which doesn't mean that they haven't been over there "shopping" in the veggie aisle! |
| KYgurlsrbest |
Posted - Aug 07 2008 : 6:28:37 PM
Well, I guess the little bugger has travelled to Michigan!!! I went out this evening, and they've (thankfully) polished off the ones they started on yesterday, and there aren't any red ones right now, so I guess their evil plan is stalled!!!!
Miss Wilma thinks it's a terrapin, too...I'll just have to spy out there for a time and see what's "goin down".
Farmgirl Sister #80, thanks to a very special farmgirl from the Bluegrass..."She was built like a watch, a study in balance ... with a neck and head so refined, like a drawing by DaVinci"...
NY Newsday sportswriter Bill Nack describing filly, Ruffian.
http://www.buyhandmade.org/ |
| StarMeadow |
Posted - Aug 07 2008 : 6:23:58 PM
I have not spied a snail OR a turtle. In fact, now that I think about it, I haven't seen either of those around here in a very long time... We do have chipmunks, however. They are pretty quick! I didn't even think about them till someone in the thread mentioned squirrels. Most people have moles...we have chipmunks. <sigh> I haven't seen them on that side of the house though, which doesn't mean that they haven't been over there "shopping" in the veggie aisle! |
| AuntPammy |
Posted - Aug 07 2008 : 5:12:04 PM
I bet it's a pesky ol' turtle. They love tomato and dew sammies! I have even caught them red.... um handed? They can't run very fast and they are easy to apprehend at least. The problem is catching them in the act. Usually really early in the am.
Let's dance in the rain and play in the puddles under the rainbows. |
| Aunt Jenny |
Posted - Aug 07 2008 : 5:04:50 PM
Do you have snails T?? That looks like the work of snails to me.
Jenny in Utah
Proud Farmgirl sister #24
Inside me there is a skinny woman crying to get out...but I can usually shut her up with cookies
http://www.auntjennysworld.blogspot.com/ visit my little online shop at www.auntjenny.etsy.com |
| StarMeadow |
Posted - Aug 07 2008 : 12:25:44 PM
Well, I'd like to know how they are getting back and forth between KY and MI so fast. Of course, I don't have an RED tomatoes for the little beasties to nibble...just GREEN ones (still). Do yours look like this???
 |
| Aunt Jenny |
Posted - Aug 07 2008 : 12:09:50 PM
birds will do that too.(or snails and slugs..ugh) Only the red ones. We have a real grasshopper problem this year..but they arn't really eating bites out of tomatoes..so I doubt that is it.
Jenny in Utah
Proud Farmgirl sister #24
Inside me there is a skinny woman crying to get out...but I can usually shut her up with cookies
http://www.auntjennysworld.blogspot.com/ visit my little online shop at www.auntjenny.etsy.com |
