Bastards

This week, CP and I stepped outside to check on the garden and saw this:




We looked at each other with surprise. What the heck ate the leaves off two of our tomato plants? Not only were leaves gone, but chunks of our green, still-ripening heirloom tomatoes.

Damn it. We didn't get to enjoy tomatoes last year because there was not enough sun. Are we going to go through another year without tomatoes???

What could have done this? Deer? A deer may be the only thing that is tall enough to reach the leaves. The two tomato plants to the left were virtually unscathed. Did the zucchini prickles keep the deer at bay?

Then we spotted these biznitches:



That's right. These three motherf*ers (aka Horned Tomato Worms) ate about 15 tomatoes and most of the leaves on two of our tomato plants. Bastards.

For comparison, here is what the two still-healthy tomato plants look like:

We then had to cut off all of the branches that were missing leaves (so that we could tell if there were more worms) and vigilantly watch the plants to make sure that there were only three worms. According to my mom, they are only around for about a week or so a year and eat everything in sight before dropping to the ground to turn into moths.

So far we haven't seen any more missing leaves or found any more worms. But our tomatoes are finally starting to ripen. Yay!

In fact, I just picked these tonight when I got home from work:

Because of the horned tomato worms, we sadly will not have enough tomatoes to make tomato sauce this year. *tear* So instead, we have been eating a lot of this:

That's right. Fresh tomato slices with a pinch of sea salt. CP's mom used to "make" this dish all the time and I am loving it!

Next year we are just going to have to be more careful about these stupid worms.

*NOTE: I'm sorry for the poor quality pictures. I think that my camera cord is now packed away. I promise that once we move into our new house I will stop taking pictures with my Blackberry!*