You can take the GRITS out of Florida, but you can't take Florida out of the GRITS!

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

My Lovely Tomato, R.I.P.

We went to Lake Placid this weekend to cut the grass and just check on things. I was going to trim my plumbago until I saw this Argiope aurantia hanging out in the middle of it...
Beautiful, huh? I'm not a spider fan, but I think this one is just really pretty. And she was HUGE, too!

Then, I came home from work this evening and found this... (ignore my mom's foot)
AAARRRGGGGG!!!!!!!!!! It ate my tomato!!!!!! @#$*&!!!! You don't mess with me and get away with it! I have loppers and I know how to use them...



Die you slimey destroyer of my beautiful tomato plant! Muhahahahaha!!!

What I don't understand is, where in the hell did it come from? I mean, I don't have any other tomatoes, my neighbors don't have tomatoes I don't live near a tomato field. So WHERE DID IT COME FROM and WHY??????

11 comments:

Sayre said...

I had three of those show up out of the blue and attack my husband's hot pepper plant. ALL the leaves were gone and there were nibbles taken out of the peppers. They appeared to be catatonic when we found them. Out of curiosity, we put them in a jar with some greenery to see what kind of butterfly or moth they might turn into - and they woke up, had seizures, then MELTED. I think the peppers did them in...

Anonymous said...

NOOOOOOOOOOO! Don't cut them up!!! :( Hornworms eat things in the tobacco family, such as flowering tobacco, tomatoes and I've seen them on angel's trumpets and daturas. If you see one I'd of left it. :( I hate killing beautiful butterfly/moth caterpillars. :( Bad Gladeslvr. LOL...ok, you're still my friend. ;)

And the golden orb. I've come to respect them, creepy as they may be.

Anonymous said...

Ummm....did you make it into soup? It looked kind of pretty. Couldn't you just put it in time out or something???

Unknown said...

Beautiful spider and I'm mourning the worm. :(

SwampAngel65 said...

No time out for that guy. Look closely at the third picture. He's dead. I chopped him with my loppers. I have no remorse, however, if I ever find another one, I'll keep it and let one of you guys have him!

It.z said...

I had one of those spiders in my yard and I thought that one was big, but this one is humongus.

SophieMae said...

OK, I admit it. I cringed when I read that you executed the offending caterpillar. 8-}

Radical spider, though! I stopped to snap one of those beauties yesterday. Spiders are pretty cool, as long as they stay out of my house.

SophieMae said...

Just out of curiosity, I googled for a pic of what the mater-eater would have become.
Manduca quinquemaculata

SwampAngel65 said...

Thanks SophieMae! Not a very remarkable moth for such a big, icky caterpillar. Interesting, though, and now I know! I should've known you'd find something on that critter for me :)

TOG said...

Tecmanthe is fairly rare. Both Anderson and Lyons sell the vine. I have seen it in bloom at the Kampong and Tim Andersons, but they don't have any flowers at this time. Mine looks like a spring flush. You haven't missed it. it's just not well know yet.

Anonymous said...

No spidey pictures!!!! I'm going to have nightmares now.