Homeowner Forum / Lawn and Garden / June 2008

Last evening, I made a quick run through my flowerbeds.  I have datura
that grows wild in one of my beds on the side of my house.  I noticed
that many of the plants' leaves were eaten, some with nothing left but
the stem.  Upon closer examination, I found the culprit, hornworms.  I
picked four off of the plants and disposed of them.

The daturas that I have can handle it and I'm not too worried about
them.  I planted one a year ago and now have about twenty growing there
now.  These things are so prolific that they are growing ON TOP of the
plastic weed stop I laid down last year so, I know that they can handle
it.  Besides, they are on the side of my house where no one ever goes, so
it's no big loss if they all get eaten to the ground.

However, this year, I'm growing tomatoes.  While I planted them too late
for a spring  harvest (it's my first year, I didn't know any better), I
would like for them to stick around long enough for fall tomatoes.  
Currently, the tomatoes show no signs of infestation other than the usual
leaf miners.  

I figure I have three options:
1)  Let them have the daturas and hope they don't discover the tomatoes
in the back yard.  Pick the worms off as I see them.

2)  Spray the daturas with BT and hope that I'm stopping the problem at
the beginning.

3)  Spray the daturas, tomatoes and anything else around my home that has
tasty looking leaves that these guys may be interested in with BT as a
preventative measure.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.