*****Tomato Horn Worm*****

In our new backyard the previous owners had some tomato plants that they obviously didn't take much care of. The kids were exploring the yard and were excited to find a "caterpillar". I immediately recognized it as the pests they were. For anyone growing tomatoes you know you do not want to find a tomato horn worm anywhere near your garden. Since I didn't care much about the plants I let Megan and Cameron each keep one in a jar. Each morning and evening they would pick tomato leaves for them. It was amazing how quickly they grew. By the end we only had one horn worm left. It was very fat and starting to turn a brown color. I thought it was dying. We asked a woman at the Houston Museum about it. She said that horn worms change under ground. We looked it up online and sure enough she was right. The kids filled a jar with dirt and placed the lethargic caterpillar on top. Within a few hours it dug all the way to the bottom. A few weeks later we came home from scouts late. I wanted the kids to go straight to bed, but they are masters at finding a way to stay up just alittle bit longer. Megan looked into the jar and said, "Mom, the caterpillar turned into a moth." Sure enough the moth had crawled from the dirt and was sitting on top of it with wet wings. Cameron pulled it quickly out and let it crawl all over him. After 30 minutes they let it go outside. I'm sure to have tomato horn worm problems next year!