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Rogue11
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Joined: Sun Mar 27, 2011 2:22 pm
Location: Orange County, California

Francis Barnswallow wrote:Rogue11 how old is that sunflower plant? I planted one a month ago and it's no taller than 8 inches.
those two sunflowers were planted on march 23rd they grew slower until they reached about 3 feet and then more than a foot every week
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cherishedtiger
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Location: Sacramento, California

Yup had one completely destroy a bell pepper plant. Had 3 nicely growing peppers on it, went to bed, woke up the next morning to only having 1/2 a bell pepper left. I was heart broken!!! I hate those guys!!!
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Francis Barnswallow
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cherishedtiger wrote:Yup had one completely destroy a bell pepper plant. Had 3 nicely growing peppers on it, went to bed, woke up the next morning to only having 1/2 a bell pepper left. I was heart broken!!! I hate those guys!!!

Thanks for the heads up. I didn't think they'd chow down on pepper plants. I've got 10 pepper plants growing nicely and producing. I'll keep an eye out for the horned worms because like I said previously, I'm killing them constantly.....at least 5 a day.
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TheWaterbug
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Weedeater wrote:He'd be kind of cute if he didn't have such a voracious appetite.
[img]https://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y88/nothernug/Home%20and%20Garden/aBUG009.jpg[/img]
He is very cute, for a caterpillar. This shot looks like something from a police lineup, guilty look and all. He looks like he's holding something he stole.

So what happened to him? Boot heel? Formaldehyde jar? Terrarium?
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Weedeater
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Location: East Texas

The little critter had got ahold of a pebble there and no desire to let go of it. We're simple folk so he succumbed to ye olde #10 work boot.

And thanks for the link specifying difference between mater & terbacky worms. :cool:
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TheWaterbug
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applestar wrote:It's actually a TOBACCO hornworm, evidenced by the diagonal line pattern:
https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=94346#94346
Wow. That guy died a horrible, horrible death. A boot heel would have been merciful.
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vegetable-gardener88
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Location: UK

Great picture, I'm sure he's smiling at the camera in one of them:) Don't have these in the UK. It looks very much like the UK caterpillars but prettier:)
garden5
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One thing to note, though, is you will sometimes come across one of these with little whit "grubs" all over it. Leave these in the garden (worm and all).

The worm won't do much damage and the larvae will hatch into beneficial parasitic wasps.

Example: [img]https://us.123rf.com/400wm/400/400/sbonk/sbonk0606/sbonk060600063/442341-a-tomato-hornworm-with-wasp-eggs-a-wasp-has-injected-her-eggs-into-this-hornworm-when-the-eggs-hatch.jpg[/img]


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