Green Horned Worms

My patio farming days are numbered I fear and all because of a green horned worm.

I have been growing cherry tomatoes, red peppers, jalapenos, and banana peppers on my patio in pots. It has been therapeutic to get up every morning and water them and watch them grow. They aren't supplying me with enough veggies to survive on , but they are fun additions to my cooking and I had envisions of expanding my little garden next year if this was a success.

Tuesday morning as usual I went out and did my watering. Every thing looked fine. So imagine my surprise when I looked out the patio door around 2:00 to see that the jalapeno plant had four leaves on it. In their place were four huge hideous green horned catepillarlike worms. YIKES I hate worms. For a moment I paused to decide if I should wait for my husband to come home in three hours to take them off my veggies. Then I remembered the days pre -husband and thought suck it up and kill the buggers. They oozed the brightest green goo ever when I squished them. My nephew would have loved this job.

Then as I turn to go back in my house to try and disinfect myself of these gross critters out of the corner of my eye I see three small green horned things on my tomato plant. Words went through my mind that I should not share with the public. I threw my shoulders back and went after the things again. Boy do they have some suction cups on their little legs.

Immediately after a hand washing in very hot soapy water I go to the computer to learn about these disgusting things. I found out they are common and was advised that a powder called BT powder could tackle them or to try soapy water sprayed on the leaves especially the back of the leaves.

Yesterday after finding three more of the worms that nightmares are made out of I tried the soapy water idea. I really hope it works. I chose the non chemical method trying to avoid the insecticide method on my plants. We will see how it turns out.