Garden Pests

Tomato Hornworm (photo by C. Terry)

Now that the garden is coming in nice the pests are starting to attack in full force. This past weekend while weeding I came across the tomato hornworm (pictured above) eating my potato plants. This is the first time I have seen one in my garden. Johnny's has a very informative video about this ugly pest. Last year we noticed the hummingbird moths flying around in our butterfly garden and didn't realize that they lay the eggs that turn into the tomato hornworm. I check my garden every morning handpicking any pest I might see, so I noticed him right away and he didn't have time to do too much damage. I also use row covers early in the spring when I plant to keep the pests from laying their eggs on the leaves of the plants. Using row covers along with applications of compost tea seems to work pretty good. I still get the occasional pest, but not nearly as many as I used to.