Follow the link. This website is SUPER helpful for things like this. Most likely the white things are parasitic wasps. So at the website on the left hand side you can click caterpillars and browse through those, or you can look through wasps and find the wasp which will lead to the caterpillar. If this does not help you can always send them a pic and ask them personally. David Here is a link that might be useful: What's That Bug

Ground hog. Deer eat greens which is dismissed by the pile on the deck there. Ditto rabbits. They dig tender stuff and if they dissed carrot tops... it was no rabbit. Skunks eat better than that. Birds would not eat the trunk. Caterpillars would have stripped the leaves and the branches as well, in one single night, without eating the trunk. Coons prefer sweet things and IMH experience, they tend to NOT eat pepper plants. Corn on the other hand... Opossums same deal, BUT I cannot say for sure as they are not a problem here. Ground hogs start at the tender top of the plant. Even WEEDS and get to a point where they just stop. That is what happened to you. If it is a hog, they feed early in the am, and just around dusk. And for fat buttocks, they sure to run fast! BUT when feeding and startled, they stand tall on hind legs. Best time to kill them with lead! Unless it is the caddyshack one...

Here's an article I wrote a few years ago which I think will help clear up some misconceptions and explain more about BER. I had lost this article, but Bets, who posts here, posted it and I was able to get it back thanks to Betsy, &&&&&&&&&& With BER there is NO problem with absorption of Ca++ though the roots. The problem is maldistribution within the plant that can be induced by a number of stresses which include uneven delivery of water, too much N, growing in too rich soil, too hot, too cold, too wet, too dry you name it. As the plants mature they can better handle the stresses that can induce BER so usually it goes away. The two exceptions are first, if the soil has NO Ca++ as confirmed with a soil test, and that's a rare condition, and second, if the soil is too acidic in which Case Ca++ is bound in the soil. Again, adding lime, egg shells and on and on can not and will not prevent BER b'c absorption of Ca++ thru the roots is OK. Paste tomatoes are especially susceptible to BER and I think someone in a post above mentioned that. If you go to the top of this first page and click on the FAQ link and scroll down you'll also find an article about BER in case some of you have never looked at the FAQ's And there's some darn good articles there as well, but I wouldn't pay any attention to the variety list b'c it's way out of date. The old information about BER being caused solely by lack of soil Ca++ has been shown to be wrong with research that's been done in the last 20 years or so, but it's going to take another generation before the real story gets into books, websites, magazines, etc. Most of the better websites already have the correct information. BER affects not only tomatoes, but peppers, squash, cabbage, cauliflower, etc., and it's a huge multimillion dollar problem for the industry, which is WHY all that reasearch was done. For instance, when tissues were taken from a plant that has BER fruits and was assayed for Ca++, the normal level of Ca++ was found, it just wasn't getting to the blossom end of fruits. And there's also a condition called internal BER where the fruits look fine, no evidence of BER externally, but when you cut open the fruit the inside is black Hope that helps Carolyn

Instructions for saving seed (various methods): http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/A_Beginner%E2%80%99s_Guide_To_Saving_Tomato_Seeds_Using_Fermentation http://wintersown.org/wseo1/YourChoiceTomatoSASE/Learn%20to%20Save%20Tomato%20Seeds%20300.pdf http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/seedsave/2002084456024410.html If you're not sure which varieties are open pollinated (grow true from seed) or hybrid (don't grow exactly true from seed), you can check these databases: Tatiana's TOMATObase has thousands of varieties, purely OP: http://t.tatianastomatobase.com:88/wiki/Category:Tomato_Variety_List Cornell's site is smaller, mostly common varieties (what's sold at big box stores and many nurseries, commonly available seeds, etc.) and many hybrids: http://vegvariety.cce.cornell.edu/mainSearch/showVarieties.php?crop_id=56&sortBy=overallrating&order=DESC The egg shells won't really help your blossom end rot, but composting is always good. BER is a condition that affects young plants in the spring. In most cases, by the time it's noticed and "treated," the plants have already grown out of the tendency. So it seems like the eggshells, or special spray, or whatever, took care of the problem -- but in reality it was just coincidence.