Veggie Tales

Last week I found this enormous (approximately 4 inch) caterpillar in my garden. I was trying to figure out why my tomato plant looked like someone had taken a chainsaw to it. Suddenly I spotted him. On the end of the branch was a multi-legged insect, binging himself on all my hard work. A few wasps appeared to be attacking him. Feeling he was being terrorized, I decided to spray the wasps to deter them from their assault. I hurriedly chopped down the branch it was on. We brought him inside, and he started to ooze green slime on my counter. Yuck! What kind of caterpillar does that? I trimmed down the branch and managed to fit him in a mason jar. We put a lid on and let him munch away to his hearts delight. Logan was thrilled to have a new pet. He even thanked Heavenly Father in his prayers for it (it was rather endearing). My curiosity overcame me and I got online to figure out what it was. My results turned up THIS. Disgusting! This thing makes a great diet program. I could hardly eat for the 24 hours he was oozing and defecating in the jar on my counter. I was completely repulsed. All I can say is after reading what this thing does to your garden, I concluded the best way to deal with him was to exterminate. Despite Logan's pleading he met his fate the next day. I couldn't bring myself to actually kill it; way too disgusting with a bug of this magnitude; so I left it in the jar and tossed it in the trash. Soo long hungry little caterpillar. If you didn't turn into a five inch wide nasty Hawk Moth with the intention of creating future generations in my beloved garden you might have had a chance.