Ha Ha Ha, Hee Hee Hee, ROTFLMAO! I knew that was a joke at my expense, y'all! But I have to admit, for a moment there, I thought you were serious! If it HAD been true, it would have been okay, because I am protecting my tomato plants like a Mama Bear - do they eat tomatos BTW? What would have been so funny about imagining I was flushing my tomatos, now?????? LOL Actually, caterpillar frass is a good organic fertilizer, and is listed as such on a website that notes various NPK of things. I dump my containers of frass from raising hornworms on my garden. So, put that image in your head now.....giggle! Other signs to look for: 1. When the caterpillars are small, the frass will look like the leaf has been sprinkled with pepper. As the cats get bigger, so goes the frass. Bigger cat, bigger poop. 2. When small, the foliage will have a small hole where the egg hatchs. Before they eat any foliage, newly hatched cats are white and are about 1/2" long. As they eat, they turn green with their consumption of leaves. 3. Early damage appears as chewed leaf edges, from the outside leaf margin, and then inward toward the vein. The first couple of instars of growth, they don't eat the veins, but as they get larger, they will consume the entire leaf. 3. Sometimes you can find them by noting a leaf that is hanging down lower than the others. The weight of a large hornworm will do that. 4. Often you'll find them in a position where their first 3 prolegs are raised up, and that position is what gave them their common name of "sphinx". I know that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all, but if you take the time to really look at them closely, they really are beautiful caterpillars. It's hard, I know, because I don't find much beauty in say, WASPS - Yikes! But I try...... You don't have to like something to appreciate its beauty. It truly makes me wonder at God's creations. Susan

I don't know much about veggies, since I am new to this area of gardening, but wanted to wish you a speedy recovery, Traci. Back pain is no fun when it gets serious enuff to keep me out of the garden. Already had one surgery, and hopefully will not have another. The surgery really helped because before it, I was barely able to walk around for more than 5 minutes. I did something to it today, planting some Salvias around the yard. Heaven knows what, but it is already feeling better this afternoon. Usually Advil will help a lot. Anyway, I enjoy gardening too much to give it up, and I still heft those 40 and 50 lb bags of soil, soil amendments, and what have you around the yard. Some peppers don't get very large, do they? I've got all my tomatos planted in containers (the indet's in 20+ gal. and the det.'s in 5 gal.) and so far, so good. I have limited space for growing them in the ground, so "up" was better for my situation. Ugh....I hate those nasty squash bugs. I only have one lonely little Pokemon pumpkin that my granddaughter and I are growing from self-sown seed of those pumpkins purchased last year for Halloween. Her and her mom's birthday are both in late October, so I always try to do some decorations for her, especially. It already has tons of buds on it. So, I've been checking it each morning for SB eggs. Cross your fingers! You'll have lots of people come around here that are very knowledgeable about growing peppers and other veggies shortly. Take care..... Susan

Aren't those tomato horn worms just the cutest little beasties????? Once you find one, your eyes will become accustomed to finding them. BT dust is the best -- hand-picking/squishing is fine but it is hard to find them all. I have heard that taking a black light out at night is also a great way to find them all - they turn day-glow green. Still - BT is perfectly safe, so use it.

Hornworms require their particular host plant to feed upon. Tobacco/tomato hornworms feed on plants within the Solanaceae family: tomatoes, tobacco, potatoes, eggplant, even petunias! I hand pluck them and toss them into the bird bath, where birds will find them and put them to 'good' use. Taking them to the woods is probably a waste of a perfectly good caterpillar, though something will probably eat it.