A Mystery in Our Garden

In the few years that we've kept an organic vegetable garden, I've learned to appreciate a few things: the miracle of seeds (a metaphor for what little life requires to perpetuate itself and create hope); the hard work and commitment needed to usher in new life; as well as the tenacity of that life once it took hold.

It was a conscious decision on our part not to use pesticides, and so we expected that part of the task of growing healthy food would entail keeping fending off creatures little and larger that wished to destroy or steal it. Having a high fence, that also extended underground, meant we kept deer, fox, raccoons, rabbits and groundhogs away. But, our vegetables were still vulnerable to birds, obviously, and insects.

Inspecting the leaves of a tomato plant, the other day, I couldn't make sense of the rice-like bits that seemed to be growing off it. Then, on closer examination, I realized the white bulbs were not growing on the plant, but off the back a worm or caterpillar. What a fascinating life-form, I thought, admiring its unusual geometric shapes. Maybe, those are its eggs, my (more practical) wife, @dianarpo, suggested.

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Preliminary research proved she was right, partly. Turns out those were eggs on the back of the caterpillar, but they did not belong to it. Rather, they were braconid wasp cocoons. Huh? Maybe, they are parasites, my canny wife piped in. Once, again, she was correct.

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As I continued researching braconid wasps, I learned the somewhat startling definition of a new word: parasitoid. That poor caterpillar giving those dozens of larvae a free ride would, eventually, be killed by the parasites that it hosted!

Mysterious thing, Mother Nature, and ruthless. The lessons of the garden persist...

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