Pests galore

I've been waging a war on roaches, meal moths, and fruit flies indoors.  (I've given the spiders a temporary reprieve, but only temporary.)  Outside, right now it's bugs and hornworms and maybe some sort of rot.
Yesterday, I noticed that one of my banana pepper plants had been demolished!  What on earth?  It was looking great just a day or two ago.

 

Upon closer inspection, I found a tobacco hornworm hiding along the curve of a leaf petiole.  (Basically I started looking at the leaves that weren't completely eaten.  This hornworm is making quick work of one of the few remaining leaves.)

They are voracious and will even eat the fruit of the tomatoes and peppers.  What a nuisance!

 

In total, I smashed 9 hornworms with a big rock.  I need to check again today.  I have a feeling more are out there.

There are lots of stink bugs, too.

I found another kind of bug a couple of days ago that was new to me.  I was out doing a little weeding in the overgrown border and admiring the second flush of blooms and butterflies on the butterfly weed.

 

I saw an orange and black bug.  Was it a harlequin bug?  I was pretty sure it wasn't something beneficial, and so I smashed it.  I looked it up and found out it was a milkweed bug.  The next morning, I killed 5 more.  That evening, I went out with my camera, sure I would find one to take a picture of.  I looked and looked.  Finally, I saw one that tended to move to the opposite side of the plant as I moved around.  I took a picture, then destroyed that bug as well.  So that made 7 milkweed bugs all on my one plant.  I'll keep an eye out for those bugs; I do like my butterfly weed.

 

The other things I'm dealing with may be be fungal diseases, I'm not sure.  My muscadines have fallen off prematurely again.  Maybe I can get a picture of the fruit to post later.  My phlox in the bed by the porch is showing some symptoms.  One stem wilted completely.  Perhaps it is black rot.  I have suspected that is what is wrong with the Japanese hollies that are in the same bed. 

 

Just when you think you're having fun gardening, you discover a new disease or pest.