Summer enemy #1.

The tomato hornworm.

Gross.

Gross.

Gross.

These green giants will decimate a tomato plant if not found promptly. I’ve had them in the past. Two. Maybe three in a season.

I picked 16 (SIXTEEN!) off my tomatoes tonight alone.

Now, when I say ‘picked,’ don’t be fooled. I don’t touch them. Heavens no. I cut the branch they are on and delicately take the branch to dispose of these green gross things. Removing hornworm + pruning all in one step. (That’s what I tell myself.)

There was one that was the biggest I’ve ever seen – the size of my middle finger, I swear to the tomato gods.

They look very similar to the tobacco worms we confronted in the tobacco fields as kids. You know, the ones my Dad would throw at me while working in the fields. Turns out those are considered hornworms too.

I didn’t love those then, and I don’t love these now.

Gross.

Gross.

Gross.

The things we do for fresh tomatoes.

(Apparently they turn into a moth that’s an important night pollinator or whatever so I don’t kill them. I just move them far away from my tomatoes with their own personal little tomato branch. A snack for the trip. Plus, killing them? Ew. I don’t want to imagine that squish.)