HornWorm Haven

Huge hornworm invades garden. Camera zooms in for some really blurry work

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• hornworm
• daturn
• moon
• flower
• bright
• haven

[bekados]

The only larva I have seen this year was attacked by a biting fly. I have never seen such a thing happen. I tried to move the larva to safety but have my doubts as to its survival. I'm sure there are more on my tomatoes somewhere. We do love our sphinx moths around here. As a child in Louisiana, we would sit on the porch at night and watch them on the 4 o'clock bushes.

[bekados]

Hmmm...I see this little video has just sparked a debate. The only comment I have refers to the invasiveness of the datura. From my giant plant last year, I only got two seedlings. Very likely it could be invasive a zone or two down but the seedlings are easy to identify and pull out.

Turns out, datura is a companion plant to pumpkins.

[FluffyPonBomb]

My name is Rebecca too, and when my father found a little hornworm on our habaneroes, i had to hunt a tomato plant down and let the little fellow go.

[Automeris]

Cool cat! That's a tobacco hornworm, larva of the six-spotted hawkmoth. Beautifully camouflaged. I enjoyed reading the banter between Combine and Homeo. Both have some interesting comments. I'm with Combine on this one. I like sphingids!

[CombineWizard]

Forgot to comment on your location--Tenn. That does explain a lot. Hornworms not as common west of Miss River. Yes, the tobacco culture has given this insect a bonanza as well.

As for the sweet sorghum, again it's such a specialy crop, it still evades most mechanical harvesting. I would be most hard-pressed to get my head and reel high enough to efficiently combine Dale or any other tall sorgo.

Soybeans and corn do very well in Tenn. Before RR beans, black nightshade was a mess.

[homeostasis4me]

An honorable profession, that is...I came up growing soybeans and pulling calves...still keep yardbirds and try to grow as much produce as we need....not very good at it, I have a BROWN thumb, but we still get lots of fresh veggies....

[homeostasis4me]

That's sad...we screwed those people, and good...no excuse for killing yourself by drinkin' that crap, though....

[CombineWizard]

I'm only a small mkt produce grower. I used to make the harvest run and cut for farmers.

[CombineWizard]

No kids around here. Sre, some want to get high on moonseeds. That's dangerous like meth. Drugs! Grrr! Using Datura to get high on, is like the Indians around here that drink isopropyl and distillates, get drunk and DIE!

[CombineWizard]

Nope, just the normal placement of leaves on the stems. This is typical of late summer as Daturas tend to drop more leaves too. I cannot tell what the plant is behind the Dat-either a shoot or something else, well fed on. There's a dead calyx still clinging to fruit, in the foreground.

[homeostasis4me]

Again, sorry, I thought you were someone else...I'm a goober...and BTW, farmers ROCK, we'd be in deep doo-doo without them, and you guys don't get the recognition you deserve; after all, we'd be hungry and naked (or wearing polyester) if you folks did'nt risk it every year....thanks for that...

[CombineWizard]

If you paid more attention to a prior comment, I identified them a Datura. inoxia and D. stramonium.

Yes, I'm very aware of atropine, common in many solanaceous plants. It is also used pharmaceutically, too, as are many alkaloids, acids and other phytochemicals.