Home Grown Fun

Tomato Hornworm – Fun Poem about a Pest

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©2013-2022 Cindy Rajhel

Tomato Hornworm Poem

Tomato hornworms are sneaky
they take the garden cake
for the most annoying four-inch pest
devouring heirlooms of any shape.

They work at night in stealth mode
speeding around your plants.
You could be a tomato bragger at dusk
then a victim of the Hornworm Dance.

Look for black poop pellets,
inspect the undersides of leaves.
They’ll be clutching tightly.
You’ll fight to break them free.

Predators beware
of the ominous horn and scary strip of eyes.
Know all of it’s a farce
to fill you full of fear and surprise.

Their only redeeming quality?
Pollinating night-blooming flowers.
But when your Green Zebra ends up a stripe-less stump,
you’re foiled even with your super garden powers!

Feed them to your chickens.
Let the birds swoop down for a treat.
Unleash your pet tarantula
to keep your Black Krim from becoming caterpillar meat!

You have a friend in the garden,
a tiny parasitic wasp.
It lays its eggs on the hornworm’s larvae
and reduces it to sauce.

If you see what looks like white rice
stuck to this nasty bug’s body,
leave the little sushi roll alone,
it’s been snatched by nothing naughty.

Enjoy your heritage tomatoes,
Early Girl and Beefsteak too.
Also watch your peppers and eggplant
for damage or the poo.

Bring bees into your garden,
attract predator insects like wasps and lady beetles.
Till the soil in between plantings
to disturb moth eggs hiding in haystack needles

For a bowl of basil, tomato and balsamic
we’ll surely take the time,
to rid our garden of hornworms
and their damaging, pesky crimes.

©2013-2022 Cindy Rajhel

Check out this CUTE video of Little Miss Squash Blossom. She lives in a luffa sponge, goes on a stakeout and gets some help from a parasitic wasp!

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Also see our cartoon ‘A Bird’s Market on Saturday Morning’ for more Tomato Hornworm Humor.
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