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The Diagnosis:
Are you ready for it? Now I'm not a scientist, but from what I've found so far, it was a Tomato Hornworm in it's late pupa stage.
The adult is a large moth sometimes called the Hummingbird Moth, Hawkmoth, or Sphinx Moth. After mating, eggs are deposited on leaves of the tomato plant and develop into big green caterpillars with v markings down their bodies. They feed on tomato, peppers, eggplant, and potatoes and then pupate. In the fall they pupate over winter, like this one did. Since it was dug up near the old test garden, I'm concluding that this is indeed what it was.
The Remedy:
The good news is that tilling the soil is thought to take out 90% of them. Then, some recommend wasps or insecticides, and handpicking of the eggs or caterpillars works too if you can spot them. Another method, ladybugs! Yahoo!
I feel better knowing what it is.
1 visitors:
We found a horn worm chrysalis while digging at a volunteer garden site. A bunch of middle aged and older gardeners acted just like eight year old boys. It was the coolest thing we had seen all day.
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