We had a mystery around here this past weekend.
Steve has been growing some pepper plants in pots on the deck. He started to notice one was not doing so well.
When he went out to check on it on Friday, he noticed that it was being eaten by something. I told him it might be a bird or something because it looked like it had been "pecked" where the actual bell pepper was growing.... or, tried. We didn't see any insects on it or around it so he figured he would just move it to the other side of the deck away from where the bush was located right beside the railing where this plant had been.
He went out on Saturday morning to check it.
It was in worse shape than before!!
But we found out, "sortof "clear as day what was causing the problem:
A Tobacco Hornworm was enjoying his "All You Can Eat Bell Pepper" plant. I thought it was rather interesting that you could see the thorax of it where it looks like his mouth with teeth... click on it to see what will be its six legs when it turns into a moth.
Below you can see the "horn" on the end of the abdomen that gives it its name.
At first Steve wanted to kill it. I can't blame him... the thing ate his peppers.
Wesley decided he wanted to keep him and watch him through metamorphosis.
We'll see if it survives that long between Wesley forgetting to feed it and the cats being VERY interested in it.
2 comments:
Eeewww! How big is that thing? At first, I thought it was a leaf.
I love butterflies... but I kill anything that eats my plants!
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