This morning I went out to check my garden (always a nice way to start the day!) and I noticed that most of my sweet potato vines had been cut at the base where they come out of the soil! The vines were just left there to die a slow death. They look like someone had just taken a knife and cut them.

My whole garden is fenced in and none of my other plants were touched. Some of my sweet potatoes are growing in the middle of my pumpkins (the pumpkins got a little wild this year) and those sweet potatoes weren't touched...yet! I've got tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, beans, zucs, lettuce, broc. NOTHING ELSE was even nibbled.

What's weird is that whatever did this didn't eat the vines, just cut them down. ARRRRGGGG!

I had a similar thing happen to me but it was my tomato plant. The zucchni, cucumber, yellow squash and bell peppers were untouched. I discovered the most frightening creature on one the plants the next day in the afternoon. It looked like a big caterpillar and it had horns. It was the same color as the plant so it was easy to miss it. I cut the entire stem and let it fall onto my dog's frisbee disk. (I am a scary cat). I flipped the disc over and squashed it. I felt really bad. I asked my neighbor and she said next time isolate the plant and let it live. It might have been a butterfly in the caterpillar stage. I have tried looking in my books for it but I havenot found it. All to say trying finding the animal and try to figure out if it is friend or foe.

Bluesky, it sounds like you had a tomato horn worm. Google it, and I'm sure you'll be able to find pictures of it. I don't think that's what I've got.

Bluesky - that was a Tomato Hornworm, & it's a "foe". Next time though, don't damage your tomato plants by cutting the stem, just pick off the caterpillar & toss or destroy it.

Or use your snippers that you cut the tomatoe plant with and cut just the hornworm itself.

Thanks, I feel so much better.

I googled it and yes, it was a hornworm.

One more thing - if you ever come across a Tomato Hornworm covered with what looks like rows of rice grains standing on end, leave it be.

Those "rice grains" are actually the eggs of a parasitic wasp ("friend"). The eggs will hatch & the wasp larvae will tunnel into the caterpillar, eating it from the inside out & killing it. The few tomato leaves you might lose to the caterpillar until this happens are worth it to keep this natural predator going.

That's good to know. Thanks for the good advice.

quote:

Those "rice grains" are actually the eggs of a parasitic wasp ("friend"). The eggs will hatch & the wasp larvae will tunnel into the caterpillar, eating it from the inside out & killing it.

Evil Dave says that is a perfect death squad attack

Yep doesn't it sound like a horror movie? It is so nasty!