Colorado Potato Beetle. They come after my potatoes every year even though I rotate plantings. Once I find them I spend a few days picking nymphs off the leaves. I pick them into an old plastic bowl I keep in the garden truck, then carry them respectfully over to the side of the garden and smoosh 'em. After a while they're culled down to the point they don't reproduce much.
I leave hornworms, despite the damage they can do. Hornworms turn into Sphinx Moths, which are beautiful to watch; frequently mistaken for hummingbirds. Since I like sphinx moths, I put up with their teenager stage. Actually, they tend to go more for the Virginia Creeper than the tomatoes. I found one in the cucumbers this year.
...and yesterday was the end of the line for the cukes and zooks. Got enough pickles in crocks all over. Dried many pounds of shredded zooks. No sense depleting the soil just to feed the compost pile; up they came.
O.H.
I leave hornworms, despite the damage they can do. Hornworms turn into Sphinx Moths, which are beautiful to watch; frequently mistaken for hummingbirds. Since I like sphinx moths, I put up with their teenager stage. Actually, they tend to go more for the Virginia Creeper than the tomatoes. I found one in the cucumbers this year.
...and yesterday was the end of the line for the cukes and zooks. Got enough pickles in crocks all over. Dried many pounds of shredded zooks. No sense depleting the soil just to feed the compost pile; up they came.
O.H.
