Striped armyworms are back.

[gorbelly]

*sigh*. They showed up around this time last year.

The damage to foliage is still relatively low, although inefficient and ugly (ruining bits and pieces of many leaves and leaving scars instead of eating the leaves cleanly). No damage to fruit yet, but last year, they did leave typical caterpillar feeding damage on some fruit. Last year's damage was minor but not negligible.

Now I have to decide whether to spray spinosad or see whether the wasps and birds can keep them under control. I always see wasps of many kinds scouting around my tomato plants, and most wasps that we see are caterpillar predators, aren't they, whether it's through parasitism or just going in there, taking them apart, and carrying them off?

I would probably feel less precious about my tomatoes if ANY of them had !@#&*$#% ripened at all at this point (and I'd gotten to eat any of them) instead of just taunting me on the vine with their gigantic swollen green promises.