[Marcella]

“Hornworms start as eggs from a moth that gets laid in the soil near the plant. All you have to do is pick over the plants and look for holes in the leaves and squish the little worm with your finger.”

OK, if I put row cover over the soil in a planter so a moth can't get to the soil, maybe I could keep away the moths especially since the grow bag would be on the deck and not on the ground.

You silly boy, you know right now for damn sure I am not squishing a worm with my finger. You knew when you wrote that, I wasn't going to do that. I am a lady but you are a throwback to a cave man as you proved by living like a mountain man (read that as cave man), for two years in an 8x12 shack, and you know that, too. I'm so glad you didn't die when you fell off that mountain as I wouldn't have met you. Sometimes there is a person who is totally original with special gifts and you are one of those people.

[JRandomFreeper]

By the end of summer, after I got my eye into noticing them, I was mashing little bitty ones that were no bigger around than a canvas sewing needle. Even you could mash one of those.

I'm not a caveman, I'm a suave, sophisticated surbanite (now) that happens to have some.... unique skillsets. I've even been to broadway plays and operas way back when. ;)

/johnny

[Nepeta]

You silly boy, you know right now for damn sure I am not squishing a worm with my finger.

It's a VARMINT, preying on your food!

Does that inspire an attitude?

[Ellendra]

You silly boy, you know right now for damn sure I am not squishing a worm with my finger.

After getting my first ever hornworm infestation this summer, I got in the habit of carrying a small pruning shears in my pocket just so I could snip the little bastards in half!

(I think mine came in the straw I'd bought for mulch. I had never had them before, but a week after I spread the mulch they were everywhere.)

If you see a hornworm with what looks like a white fungus on it's back, leave it. Those are from a parasitic wasp. Get that wasp established in your garden and you might never have to squish hornworms again.