Tobacco hornworms + Armageddon

I went back up there today. I went armed.

I wanted to see how much of a plant the tobacco hornworm monster could actually demolish overnight.

The answer? A lot.

And...there were more: three of them. Two on my black cherry tomato and one on my yellow pear.

One had its face in a tomato.

Beside them, my slowly ripening patio tomatoes...

I could not watch anymore.

I snipped the first one. It's your fault, Frank. That was awful. Horrible. So I cut the bare branches the other two fat ones were on, and flung them. I flung them far. Over the rooves and into the no man's land behind these brownstones. I'd be a great pitcher.

I read about them. They are not in danger of disappearing from the planet. My tomatoes were. And the natural pest control everyone coos about, the parasitic wasp that lays its eggs ON the caterpillar? So the larvae hatch and it eat alive??? What a way to die. It's awful!!!!!

I am shaken.

A G&T is coming up.

I see dead caterpillars.