Evidently, the people who designed Anya’s toothbrush were not gardeners.

Too bad I didn’t notice the similarity when I bought the toothbrush because now every time I see it, I squirm a little bit. I could never use this toothbrush myself, but lucky for Anya she hasn’t had much experience (yet) with the disgusting tomato horn worm.

The tomato horn worm is the most repulsive garden pest. It is yicky and it hides and you don’t see it and you are all “la la la” merrily picking yummy tomatoes and then you grab one and it bites you with its dragon-sized fangs of doom and you shriek and run and flail your arms in the air and fall to the ground in a puddle of hysterical bawling.

My mom has this huge industrial-sized pair of tweezers that she reserves for the hideous task of plucking these nasty creatures off a plant. I don’t have any of my own and have tried kitchen tongs…but they really don’t have a good enough grip to pry those nasty beasts away from their homes. And of course you can’t pull them off with your bare hands because you’ll get leprosy or flesh-eating sores or zits.

One time, when Andy was away at school, I found a tomato worm in the garden. I did the required shrieking and flailing, and then I called on my very brave roommate to save me. She got the bug off the plant and put it on the driveway and BAM SPLAT dropped a brick on it. The only thing more disgusting than a live tomato horn worm is an exploding tomato horn worm. Hrm. Or perhaps a tomato horn worm being ripped apart by a flock of hungry ducks.