Am I a frustrated entymologist?

At least, that's my bet. I kinda like bugs. Not ALL bugs, mind you--cockroaches do make me run away, screaming like a little girl (but they're really, really GROSS! *Shudder*).

To bring everyone up-to-date, I'm growing 'maters. LOTS of 'em. I've never really had much luck, so figured if I planted 12 (and then Mom & Dad gave me a Beefmaster--love that name, by the way...I picture a tomato dressed in animal skins, wielding a sword above his head--so 13 plants in all), then we'd maybe get one or two plants. Well, I took Dad's advice, and planted them in a good spot, with good soil & have actually fertilized them. And guess what?

WE HAVE TOMATOES.

I've already harvested 2 Beefmaster and about 6 Romas. YUM. There is NOTHING like a fresh, garden-grown tomato. So, I've got 13 vigorous plants:



And, if you have tomatoes, chances are you're going to have hornworms--a lovely, fat green worm with a horn on it's backside. These little buggers can defoliate a tomato plant pretty quickly, and from my research, the best control for a home gardener is to just pick them off & drown them.

Or, my preferred method is to pick them off & fling them to the street so the mockingbirds have a juicy snack. (Patrick said he never realized I was so bloodthirsty.)

So, I went out & picked off 3 one morning...all were about 3" long and had these white egg thingys on its back. Well, not knowing about hornworm reproduction, I was afraid that these were little hornworms just waiting to hatch. So, as per my method, flung them to the street (by the way--they were gone the next time I went out, so I can only assume that 1) they're either much faster than I give them credit for & they hot-footed it back to the garden, or 2) there were some VERY happy mockingbirds).

I started thinking, and though I remembered something about parasitic something-or-others, and consulted the all-knowing internet.

Voila!

The tobacco hornworm (there are 2 varieties--tomato and tobacco, and the only difference I could find was the color of the horn. Tomato are black, tobacco are red, but both are equal-opportunity feeders of both plants) IS a host to the paper wasp. So, those little white egg thingys WERE eggs, but for the paper wasps, and according to my research, by the time you see the eggs, the hornworm is pretty much done. Apparently the larvae of the paper wasp eat the hornworm from the inside. Yeah, ain't nature beautiful?

Anyway, I've been pretty vigilant, and have not seen many hornworms. Until Saturday morning, when we found a beauty. I say "we" because Noah made a friend: "Pah." Yup--found a nice, big one, and Noah carried it around for a long, long time. I think he may have nearly loved it to death. We thought it would be neat for him to watch the hornworm spin his cocoon and morph into the hummingbird moth (I think that's what the tobacco hornworm becomes...but don't quote me on that. And oh, yeah, the other difference between the tomato and the tobacco worms is the type of moth they turn into--but both turn into HUGE moths. Quite impressive, really.). Unfortunately, it wasn't to be--Noah wanted to carry him around. And, something my research didn't reveal is that when hornworms are picked up, squeezed a bit and carried around, they emit this greenish juice stuff (much like the "tobacco" that grasshoppers spit when you pick them up). Not sure if it's supposed to make them taste bitter (we didn't try it, thank you very much), but it was interesting.

We finally convinced Noah that Pah had to go take a nap, and then we put Pah out to pasture (sort of like sending the aging family pet to an unnamed, geographically vague "farm.")...which probably caused him to end up a really, REALLY juicy snack.

See how happy Noah looks with his friend:






Okay, so I go out tonight, and I find one of Noah's little friends with eggs on it:



And I look closer, and I see that the eggs are HATCHING!






So, okay, some of you may be totally grossed out by this, but I think it's pretty cool. You can even see their little antennae and eyes... I guess they got a little irked with my flash! Maybe it's for the best that I left when I did...not sure how aggressive baby paper wasps are, but I know that the adults do sting, but I think for the most part they're fairly passive. But, the way I react to stings and bites, I really don't want to find out.

And, for those who ARE grossed out, and want a little cuteness to go with your bugs, check out the movie(s) that Patrick's posted on his blog:

http://www.possumstar.blogspot.com/

On a completely unrelated note, the house is getting closer...the roof is DONE; we should have the missing part of our hall baseboard and our laundry room-kitchen threshold done tomorrow. We're getting the carpeting estimate tomorrow. The inside of the house is painted (except for going over the trim work); and today Mom & I did a bang-up job on the front rails & planter boxes (they're now white, and it really looks great!). It's coming along, and we keep crossing stuff off of our list, but if anyone wants to come and help, well, we won't turn it down...

Our love to all!