tomato fruitworm

for a vegetable people used to not eat because they thought it was poisonous, it makes sense that tomatoes don't have many natural enemies. they more often succumb to plant diseases rather than become food for insects. however, this wasn't the case this afternoon when i found a caterpillar munching on one of my green tomatoes. it was a showcase of entomological gluttony, feeding on one end while defecating out the other. i pulled out the caterpillar with a pair of makeshift twig chopsticks and quickly sent it to bug heaven. upon further examination of my other tomatoes, i discovered another one with holes in it (unfortunately i couldn't find the caterpillar that ate that tomato). here i was all worried about tomato thieves (julie had one of her tomatoes stolen before she left) when right underneath my nose something else was putting my crops in danger. when i got back home i looked up the caterpillar: turns out it's a tomato fruitworm. like the name implies, it feeds on tomatoes, but it also eats corn, lettuce, and many other vegetables - making it a serious crop pest ("one of the most destructive"). i'll have to go back to the garden and check and see if i can find any unhatched eggs. if only they transform into beautiful butterflies! then i might be able to tolerate some fruitworms, but alas, the adults become nondescript moths.

(neighbor's tomatoes)

did somebody ask for more tomato porn?

the monster tomato has turned red! i collected 5 tomatoes from my garden today: 3 the size of large oranges, 2 the size of grapefruits.

the nights are getting colder, the days becoming shorter - it won't be long before the flowers start to fade. therefore i make it my mission to document as much of it as possible before they're gone. for the most part the flowers growing in the community garden are pretty common: zinnias, daisies, cosmos. nevertheless, they seem to attract a fair share of butterflies and i've seen more lepidopteras here in the community garden than all the butterflies i've spotted in my nature outings for this year.

back at home, i ate an onion bagel for a late lunch. i noticed an increase of pedestrian activity outside my place, all the college students moving back to town. just on my street alone, i saw no less than 5 moving trucks. while feeding my fish, i was sad to discover one of my female guppies had died. not just any female, but the last of the original pair that i purchased back in december. now the only guppy left from that original 4 is a single male.

in the evening i made it over to my parents' place for dinner. we had steaks marinated in teriyaki sauce. i got them to watch the rebroadcast of the no-hit game from last night and we tentatively discussed repainting the inside of their house (since they bought the place in 1984, it's never been repainted before). before i left i got a quick haircut from my mother.