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| Nice try, but I see you! 🐛 |
In college and for a few months after, until my full-time job started, I worked in a few entomology departments. From that wild experience, where I cared for cockroaches, raised houseflies from maggots (fun fact: they smell like blueberry oatmeal the first day they hatch. After that…not so much 🤢), and collected samples of soybean aphids, I gained an appreciation and fascination for the insect world. That has crossed over seamlessly as a homesteader.
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| Ugh. So. Annoying. |
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| This poor guy’s in for it. |
If any of us ever stumble across a tomato hornworm while weeding or harvesting, it’s immediately ousted from the garden. The kids often keep it as a pet for a while, but eventually, it finds its way into the beak of a hungry chicken. It’s a quick way to go, the chicken gets a treat, and the tomatoes are safe until another ravenous caterpillar finds its way to it. As terrible as it would be to be gobbled up by a bird with a brain the size of a pebble, there are other, more horrific ways to go. Occasionally, we’ll find a hornworm covered in tiny white cocoons. They’re from a predatory wasp that lays their eggs under the skin. The babies eat their way out, spin cocoons, and emerge to go find the next hornworm to victimize. Yes, I think bugs are interesting, but yes, that still makes my skin crawl.
