Hornworms and Cucumber Beetles

August 3, 2011

I went out to the garden this morning to see my pepper plant stripped of its leaves and most of the peppers. And see that poop all underneath it? Yuck.

Um, not good.

A quick google turned up information on hornworms. So I went out to search. Nothing I read prepared me for the nastiness that is a hornworm. I was looking all over the plants for the caterpillar looking worm I saw in the pictures, lifting branches and looking carefully. Then I see this. Don’t mind my garden tools sitting there.

It was HUGE! At least as thick around as my thumb. Much bigger than I anticipated. And it was over by my tomatoes, about 6 feet away from the pepper plant that was devastated. I am crossing my fingers, hoping that this was the only one. Hopefully. Cause they are super nasty.

I took some pictures then dropped it into the bucket of soapy water I used to get rid of the cucumber beetles this morning.

I recently read this post at Simplifiy, Live, Love and it got me wondering about cucumber beetles. A quick google for more pictures solidified my fears. Yep, those bugs all over my pumpkins are not harmless. So into a bucket of soapy water they got knocked. And tomorrow hopefully there will be less of them.

This post is linked to:

Simple Lives Thursday

3 responses to “Hornworms and Cucumber Beetles”

Michelle @ Simplify, Live, Love

August 3, 2011 at 7:39 am

The good thing about hornwoms is they are easy to find! Look for that poop. I’ve had them before and the plants have bounced back pretty quickly. You will start noticing the poop now before it gets so big – when the caterpillars are smaller. Then you can kill them before they get seriously destructive.

Keep killing those cucumber beetles. They’re terrible. They have killed my cucumber crop – caused bacterial wilt. http://www.simplifylivelove.com/2011/07/battle-of-the-cucumber-beetles.html The interesting thing is though, I checked my garden before I left for a week (I’m visiting my parents) and they had disappeared! I don’t know if it was a fluke – but last Saturday was the first time I have been to my garden all summer without seeing a single beetle. I have no idea where they went.

I sprayed with NEEM Oil a couple times and once I even used Sevin (regret that) earlier in the summer, but haven’t done that in about a month. While it would keep them away for a few days, they always came back in full force. So I was stunned on Saturday when I saw NO signs of cucumber beetles or squash bugs. And even more stunned when I found a beautiful zucchini and several baby zucchinis. I hope they stay away!!

LikeLike

Reply
Sustainable Eats

August 11, 2011 at 2:10 am

Wow! I had no idea they were that big. I love pest post – thanks for sharing with SLT!

LikeLike

Reply
Hornworms and Parasitic Wasps | CookGardenSew

September 19, 2011 at 6:25 pm

[…] have spent the past month picking and smashing hornworms, all the while wondering where in the heck those wonderful parasitic wasps were. I guess they […]

LikeLike

Reply