You may have 'tobacco hornworms' (Manduca quinquemaculata - a sphingid moth) or 'tomato loopers' (Chrysodeixis chalcites - a noctuid moth). To the amateur, both are green, but have different sizes, markings and body features. Bacillus thuringeiensis sprays are safe and effective. New Spinosad treatments (e.g. 'Conserve SC', 'Entrust', ' Naturalyte', 'Monterey Garden Insect Spray' and 'Borer, Bagworm, Tent Caterpillar & Leafminer Spray') are probably effective and very safe, but you'd need to check the label. There are also registered chemical treatments, such as elemental sulphur (400 g/kg) + Cu as oxychloride (40 g/kg) + carbaryl (20 g/kg), or sprays of cyfluthrin, or pyrethrins, or fenthion. Just follow the label instructions for your Country, State or area. Then there are some generalist fungal control agents (e.g. Metarhizium spp. and Beauveria bassiana), but I'm not sure if they are commercially available to gardeners. Baculovirus agents against loopers are under experimental investigation. Good luck!

Never saw a hornworm in 26 years growing tomatoes, that is until year 27. Didn't even know what one looked like and had never heard of them before either. Year 27 was last year and anyone who wonders how quickly they can destroy a tomato plant, trust me, it doesn't take very long. This was a tiny tim on Monday. 14 inches tall. It rained all day Tuesday, so was not outside to check anything or even see anything that was going on. Same tiny tim 9AM Wednesday morning. There was nothing but a few stems left and a couple of tomatoes. Luckily though, there was enough left in the season, half of August and all of Sept. for regrowth and toms before the frost set in. regrowing tiny tim This was on the other side of the yard, so none of the other tomato plants where affected, but trust me, i was going through those plants with a flashlight several times a day looking for any sign of them and found none. By the way, those hornworms measured 4 inches long and there where 2 of them on that poor little plant. So far this year no sign of them. A question though. My grandparents had a summer veggie and flower farm and my grandfather always swore by companion planting of marigolds and tomato plants. He always had marigolds surrounding his tom plants. and he had at least 150 tomato plants. I've always done the same thing when I plant them in the ground and when I use pots for the toms, I always plant a small growing marigold in the pot, right at the edge of the plant. I've never had an insect problem before in now 28 years of growing my toms, until last year. That one tiny tim didn't have a marigold in the pot with it, all the others had marigolds surrounding them and in pots with them and they never got any hornworms. Does anyone think that the marigolds help to keep the hornworm away or was last year just a coincidence and I've just been lucky all these years? Fran

I agree with almost all of what has been written above. YOU need to fix it NOW. You're 3.9 years overdue, plus your girls are at a particularly nasty age. It'll be ten times as hard now as it would have been 4 years ago. Sit them both down in a place with no distractions and lay down the law. I'd try it with both together, but if that won't work, divide and conquer. Maybe talk to them in the car at the side of the road or in a parking lot (stomping distance from home?) -- whatever it takes to get them to listen. Keep your rules simple and short, and set the bar realistically low. In other words, they are not required to be nice, but are absolutely required to be civil. Dinner will be eaten together at the family table, and anyone who doesn't want to eat, doesn't eat. (Period. Get a cheap plastic locker and padlock if needed.) All questions will be answered in a polite manner. (Ask Hubby to keep them minimal at first.) Make a written list of your rules and post them on the wall. Also pre-determine consequences for breaking the rules -- loss of computer, phone, gaming, TV, iPod, piano, activities -- and FOLLOW THROUGH. Make your punishments short but severe. Since their behavior has become habitual, maybe come up with a 'warning' signal you can give them so that they can turn it around before losing a privilege. Now on the BioDad. He needs to understand that by encouraging them to behave that way, he is turning his children into little monsters. They are already disrespecting you; it won't be long before they turn their disrespect on HIM. And on anyone else who displeases them -- teachers, friends, coworkers and bosses. He is doing them NO FAVOR and actually causing them quite a bit of damage. You may want to gather some hard evidence of Dad's support before launching your 'fix' campaign. Why? Because I'm guessing YOU will not be able to change Dad's mind, no matter how persuasive your speech, because a Dad who does that isn't thinking clearly. But try to persuade him. Give him a chance and ask for his help in turning the girls' behavior around. Maybe write him an email? Several? And if he refuses, drag his butt into court because a judge will straighten him out pretty quick. Family court judges see this kind of thing a lot and have very little tolerance for this kind of carp. Maybe ask for court-ordered counselling and compliance monitoring? Or ask that if Dad won't comply, that he lose unsupervised contact with the girls? Frankly, I'm surprised your husband has put up with this as long as he has.

Ye gads! That's a lot of damage!!! Definitely sawfly damage. What most of us do (at least I do) is as soon as you see the damage beginning - look on the underside of the leaves and squish any green larvae (looks like tiny green caterpillars) you see. I check everyday for any new damage. That way it never gets as bad as your damage. However that doesn't help you now. Personally I don't spray. I would be VERY vigiliant and look under all the leaves and squish. They will not be at the bottom part of you rose (they've eaten most of that). They will be at the top part of the damage (still UNDER the leaves though). Someone else may have other ways for you to deal with this. Carol - good luck!