I suspect something in my garden's little ecosystem controls the hornworms, because I see the moths every morning and every evening. They're outside nectaring at the night-blooming flowers right now. Or, possibly the wild birds take care of them. Since we put out bird seed and water for the birds, my garden is full of birds every waking moment. Mo, Borage is an herb. I've grown it for about 15 years now. I started growing it as a companion plant for tomatoes and have continued growing it because the bees love it so. With all the trouble our bees are having nowadays, I'm always careful to plant tons of nectar plants for them. Right now, out in the pastures there's not much for the bees, so they visit my garden a lot. The only native plant that is green and blooming in the pasture right now (everything else is dried and crispy) is the frogfruit. I should move some frogfruit to the garden this year so it will be there next year for the bees. Borage doesn't reseed heavily for me most years. I think it is likely my clay soil is so wet in wet winters that the seeds probably rot. I always grow the blue-flowered borage, and some years I grow the white-flowered version as well. You find the seed in the herb section of garden catalogs and sometimes you see it on seedracks as well. Joiseygirl, If you go back and look at the photos in the link, look at the last photo...where the little 'caps' are open on the cocoons to show the wasps have emerged. I think when the majority of the cocoons have the caps open like that, then you can remove the hornworms without any worry that you'll hurt the wasps. You probably could remove them even before that, but what you want to do is to encourage the brachonid wasps to stick around, so the less you disturb them before they emerge, the better. Dawn

Tobacco Horn Worm I havenÂt had a Tomato Hornworm on my tomatoes so far. My first tobacco hornworm this year was found June 12, 2008. It was the smallest hornworm I had ever seen. I get two stick and use them as chop sticks to take the hornworms off of my tomatoes. I had a lot of hornworms, but the wasps, and birds seem to have gotten the ones that I couldnÂt find. Hornworms are nothing compared to the cabbage loppers. See the photo of the Tobacco Hornworm that I had last year. Atlanta, Georgia Karyl ==== Here is a link that might be useful: My Flicker Photo of Tobacco Hornworm

Great photo essay! Only thing woulda been better is like if you could do one of those one-frame-every-coupla-second dealies and the run a YouTube video of the disappearin' hornworm. BTW ... I never pick and pull the heads off hornworms anymore. I used to, thinkin' they were the bane of tomato world. But then I really don't get a whole lot of'm. Most of the ones I notice hatch out parasitic wasp larvae or pupae or whatever the heck those coupla dozen mummy-maggots are in the little white cacoons lined up on the back of the hornworm. Maybe because I have nearby catalpa trees and the same wasp prey on catalpa worms ... Point is, if you let the hornworm go to term, it either is gonna host a bunch of parasitic wasps that'll just multiply the odds of future hornworm control. And tell me ... if you don't prune or you do wire basket containment ... how many hornworms do you see outta how many are in the foliage munchin' away undetected? My bet is about one in ten you see and the rest are either happily munchin' away or hosting parasite larvae. Besides, any hornworms that make it past the parasite wasps stop eatin' your vines, fall off into the soil, pupate and become some of the most beautiful moths you'll ever see. Check It Out

should be fine. Just remain alert and check both plantings now & then.