Farmer Kael and his Tomato Grub

This spring Kael broke ground in his veggie patch. He's expressed an interest in growing things since last year and I figured he was at a good age to care for his own plants. I let him select the plants with some guidance (I nixed the hot pepper plants for obvious reasons) and in the end we settled on 3 kinds of cherry tomatoes, jumbo pumpkins and 2 kinds of sunflowers. There's some room left for either green beans or corn. We haven't decided which yet and at this late date we'll probably pick corn.

Anyway, his tomatoes have started to blossom and he's very excited to see them fruit. Unfortunately I've started noticing that the blossoms are breaking off -- most likely due to the winds. Some have survived and we actually have little tomatoes! The kids are totally excited (Malia especially since she loves loves loves to eat tomatoes) and can't wait to pick them. Lately though I've noticed that our tomato crop numbers were dwindling. Knowing that we have a snail and slug problem, I've been keeping my eyes open for them but haven't seen signs of them slimy bugs. I wonder what was taking Kael's tomatoes? My final deduction: it's got to be some really pesky tomato grubs.


Kael's veggie plots. Pumpkins and tomatoes towards the bottom with sunflowers in the top two.


Can you see how the flowers have broken off at the stem? Luckily we have some stubborn flowers that survived to fruit.


I need to devise some sort of wind screen or something to protect them. I'm open to ideas.


A victim of the tomato grub. Poor little guy. Kael was so upset when he saw this.

Upon further investigation, we've discovered the Tomato Grub:



Malia has been harvesting the baby tomatoes before their time. I don't know how many she's actually taken but let me tell you: it was almost World War 3 when Kael discovered it was her.

Good grief, he was pissed. Despite scoldings and talking-to's, Malia still makes a beeline for Kael's tomato patch so now she's under constant watch in the backyard.

Forget the wind screen... I need to build a little fence to keep her out.