ARGH! Dang blasted #@$%*^%

[Blueaussi]

Thursday it was raining when I got home, and I got home late Friday, so garden perusing was cursory; just long enough to pick a few tidbits for dinner. Saturday I wandered out for a leisurely stroll and more serious inspection and...and...there it was. My beautiful Bolivian Habanero, the one loaded with 19 juicy and evil looking peppers, that one that was just starting to ripen some was dang near leafless.

Argh! After a hornworm free summer, this one struck with a vengeance! The whole top of the plant was stripped, and 16 of the 19 peppers were too damaged to save. I can save one nearly ripe one, and two green ones were untouched.

So, I mounted an intensive search and destroy mission and terminated with extreme prejudice!

*obligatory whine* Iiiiii haven't evvvven had a Bolivian Hab before. Thiiissss wassss my firssst.

[mjc]

Death to marauding worms!

You do realize, that being in your zone that it would be fairly easy to overwinter that plant? Especially, since you've already got it 'containerized'? And that peppers really are tender, short lived perennials? And you will have a jump start next spring? Also peppers tend to produce better the second year?

[Barbee]

Aww Blue, I'm sorry
I hope you stomped him good!

[ContainerTed]

Blue, my one and only Zavory Habanero and my one and only jalapeno were also attacked in a like fashion. The dastardly-deed-doers were both huge (they had to be after eating all the foliage they did).

Both terminated with "Extreme Prejudice" followed by loud maniacal laughing.

Both plants have since renewed the foliage and added many blooms and fruit. The Hab has really loaded up. There is hope after the disaster. Give the plants a feed and they'll give you more season.

Ted

[huntsman]

How do you get rid of this pesky critter??

[ContainerTed]

It's the larvae of what we normally call the "Hawk Moth" or "Hummingbird Moth". These critters can get over 4" long and 1.5 centimeters in diameter. The damage on Blueaussie's plant in the first picture can take less than 36 hours.

You can pick them off and squish them, in which case the little wasps will come and carry off the carcass.

You can spray with a chemical that will give them a tummy ache when they graze on sprayed foliage.

It's kind of a case that, "If you grow tomatoes and peppers, they will come".

Ted

[Blueaussi]

Originally Posted by mjc

Death to marauding worms!

You do realize, that being in your zone that it would be fairly easy to overwinter that plant? Especially, since you've already got it 'containerized'? And that peppers really are tender, short lived perennials? And you will have a jump start next spring? Also peppers tend to produce better the second year?

Yeah, yeah, yeah...only *sob* It ate my peppers!

*sniffle*and I wanted to know that it was worth the trouble of overwintering before I went to the effort. I always overwinter a few. One year I threw up a hoop house over the garden and had a go at overwintering them all.

[Blueaussi]

Originally Posted by ContainerTed

Blue, my one and only Zavory Habanero and my one and only jalapeno were also attacked in a like fashion. The dastardly-deed-doers were both huge (they had to be after eating all the foliage they did).

Both terminated with "Extreme Prejudice" followed by loud maniacal laughing.

Oh dang it, I forgot the maniacal laughing! I was too busy cursing and spitting.

Both plants have since renewed the foliage and added many blooms and fruit. The Hab has really loaded up. There is hope after the disaster. Give the plants a feed and they'll give you more season.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, and patience is a virtue and all that. Only, it's not one of mine.

*stomps foot* I want my Bolivian Hab!

[ContainerTed]

Blue, I feel your pain. The one that got on my jalapeno destroyed 9 full sized peppers.

The manaical laughing comes shortly after the cursing and spitting .... and the killing ... hehe hehe hehe hehe .... Hmmmmm!!!!

Ted

[huntsman]

Dang - a dark side to my new hobby...

Still I do get to squish 'em, right?! Mwahahaha!

Thanks, Ted.

[ContainerTed]

Huntsman, here's the little wasps that will come and actually cut up a hornworm that is partially squished. They carry the pieces off to their nest. This is why any I find without the little wasp eggs on them get placed on some kind of pavement and then lightly squished. The wasps don't have to do a lot of searching to find them. I believe they can actually smell them. The ones I find with eggs get moved down into the woods to allow the eggs to hatch, making more wasps.

The one with eggs in picture #5 was found this morning. It had lost its appetite. I found damage to foliage from another one this morning, but still haven't found it. When I do finally get it, it will be Hornworms #25 and #26 so far this year.

I sprayed today with "Garden Safe" which contains a fungicide, an insecticide, and a mite-icide. I alternate that with Daconil right now while the Blight alert is such a threat.

Ted

[huntsman]

Darn, that's a fine looking critter!

The wasps are actually beneficial to the garden? That's amazing! I always considered them a hazard, but they are clearly a part of the food chain.

Thanks, Ted.

[Blueaussi]

There are all kinds of wasps. I believe the wasps in the first picture are paper wasps, and they are indeed insect predators, which is a good thing when you want them to eat your nasty tomato hornworms, but a bad thing when they go after your lovely monarch butterfly caterpillars.

The eggs in the third and fifth pictures are most likely from a Braconid Wasp.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braconidae

[huntsman]

Catch 22, eh? Lol!

[RJ_Hythloday]

I was in the Smithsonian Natural History Museum Saturday and in the insect exhibit they have several small tomato plants w/ several large horn worms and there was one moth in the display. I couldn't believe how big they were, also how big the moth was. I'll get the tennis racket out if I see one of these guys fluttering around my garden!