Dealing with Caterpillar pests on my Potato plants
I noticed my potato leaves were getting munched on, upon closer inspection there are tomato hornworms trying to eat the young potato leaves.
I tried spraying them with neem oil but they did not seem to leave the plant. You can see them dripping with it. The grasshoppers fled as I sprayed but did not affect the catapillars.
They have been quite busy, so I eventually pulled them off with a tool. They did not like that, attacking the metal needle nose ends of my tool. Even at one point spitting at me.. nasty little things.
I pulled two off a few days ago and one yesterday. I did not see any more today but I'll be keeping a close eye on them. I dont want my potatoes affected under the hay.
Luckily they seem to be regrowing the leaves but rather them not get eaten at all so my potatoes will grow big and strong.
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The hornworms sure can do alot of damage 😒...!!! I usually just pick them off too..but they can be so hard to find they blend right in with the green. And as you mentioned they do have an attitude the nasty things.
@annephilbrick yeah I noticed they show up on later season crops. Usually early spring they are not much of an issue. They sure do blend in.. I gotta stare at my plants for a few minutes before I spot them.
I gotta watch my plants daily this time of year or I may come back to just stalks.
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@solominer I have found the best time to catch them is at night, in the day time most of them are in the soil, you can dig around and find them that way.
@myjob good tip, I found those three at around 6am before the light came out. I've been checking on the plants and seems those big hornworms are gone, though I'm still finding little catapillars.
I think I'm going to give DE a try when we have a dry spell.
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