It’s not to occasional mouse that sneaks away with a strawberry now and then; it’s not the burrowing mole unearthing the potatoes before their time; it’s not the neighbor’s cat that sneaks into the garden at night, twirling up twine and rolling in the dirt as if it’s been sprinkled with catnip; garden enemy number 1 is this thing:
The white worm.
It can make a plant go from looking like this:
To looking like this:
The transformation is almost overnight. It eats the plant’s roots, so as we mindfully tend to the plant above, the beast is destroying it from below and we are completely unaware of it until it’s too late.
Christophe’s plight against this intruder is well documented amongst friends. He once was spotted carefully hunting a worm that has made its way down a row of lettuce. When he finally excavated the critter, it was green and as fat as a finger. Christophe’s triumphantly crushed it on some stones. He still recounts the incident like an old war story – with a glim in his eye knowing the enemy has been vanquished.
During planting season, I ran across quite a few, all who meet their dome in a similar fashion. I can share a berry or two, but a whole plant is a bit too greedy.
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