Chaos ensued in my mother’s garden two Sundays ago when these creatures were spotted. Four fierce-looking worms straight out of a science fiction movie. They were as long as my ring finger, oozing green goo, plump and juicy after having feasted on the leaves/stalks/fruits of my mom’s cherry tomatoes. I screamed. My three-year-old ran from her grandmother’s side to me. But because I was just as scared as she was, she fled whimpering back into the house. My mother rushed after her.  Startled, Rupert, my son, pulled his hands away from the tomatoes he was picking. Then he jumped up and down, all the while saying “Uggh! Uggh! Uggh! Uggh!”.

When calm and order was restored, I picked them up with tongs and put them in a glass jar. They could be butterfly caterpillars. Who knows… It would be nice to see them go through their metamorphosis. My kids would enjoy that. Feisty critters. They won’t go without a fight. When they felt the tongs touch them, they quickly raised the front ends of their bodies and turned to face the metal implement. Fighting stance. Then they lunged forward to attack it. That’s Manduca Sexta for you, a.k.a. Tobacco Hornworm, the natural pest of tomato plants. It is green with seven white diagonal stripes on both sides of its body, and a red curved tail that looks like a horn. You will also see it feeding on potatoes, eggplants, and tobacco.

Two days after their capture they stopped moving, shrank, and turned brown. I was worried that maybe they’re sick or dying. I learned , after searching the internet, that they’re in their prepupation stage, getting ready for the big change. So now we’re just waiting. I don’t know when they will get their wings. Hopefully we’ll get to see them fluttering about in the plastic container that used to belong to our turtle, Mojo. They’re not going to turn into pretty, multi-colored butterflies like I hoped they would. The Manduca Sexta is a caterpillar that transforms into a plain, and not-so-pretty brown moth called Caroline Sphinx. That’s okey though. We’ll still keep them til they  spread their wings. It’s not everyday that you get to see a miracle of nature. I’m really tempted to squash them. They’re gonna mature and breed more garden pests. But my friends told me that even pests have a role in ecology and that I should put them back in their natural habitat. Huh!  I’m thinking- the friends who said that have never had a plant eaten up by worms with insatiable appetites. So, here I go again with my worm issues. I’m so getting tired of this.

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