Update on my Balcony Garden

  I am writing and recording the events of my gardening on the balcony. My latest dilemma has been the battle with the fruit worms. Fruit worms look like caterpillars, and they literally eat the plant. The smaller the plant, the easier it is for the fruit worm to destroy it.
  I have a big tomato plant which has been attacked by the fruit worm. I don't know if it is just one fruit worm or several, and I don't know where they come from. Are they in the potting soil, or do they find their way up the plant?
  For a long time, I had been wondering what was happening to my plants. I never saw anything on them, yet, the leaves would disappear, sometimes overnight. My big tomato plant was severely attacked and one night I went out there and found the culprit. Oh no! Would I actually have to pull this thing off the plant? Yuk!
  I found some tweezers and put some peroxide in a bottle, then went out there and pulled the thing off. My, he had a good grip on the plant! I would be checking periodically and did find more of them. Then I started dusting the tomato and pepper plants with Diatomaceous Earth and also BT. I found some fruit worms on other plants and pulled them off. Unfortunately, one night, I lost 3 plants due to the fruit worms. I replanted them and continually check over them.
  There are less fruit worms now. My wounded big tomato plant is growing again, and the little pepper plants are getting bigger too. But another disappointment happened. One morning, when I was checking over the plants, the banana melon plant disappeared! It too, must have been attacked by the fruit worm. Now everything gets dusted with DE and BT, not that by dusting them, it will prevent the fruit worm from attacking again. It will kill the fruit worms, but they can still do a lot of damage before they ingest those ingredients.
  One more thing for me to research; I remember vaguely about learning to use tanglefoot, or angel hair on plants to prevent cutworms from chewing up the plants. I'll look into it again and see if my memory can serve me right.
  I hope what I write on my blogs will help other gardeners with their dilemmas. Feel free to post your gardening victories or struggles in the comment box.