Monday, December 07, 2009

I Never Fully Trusted Tomatoes





I love tomatoes. But I've never really trusted them since I discovered (in the fourth grade) that they're members of the deadly nightshade family. Now, new scientific research has uncovered another terrifying truth about everyone's favorite salad ingredient.

TOMATOES ARE CARNIVOROUS!

That's right. Tomatoes eat insects. How? According to an article in The Telegraph . . .

Botanists have discovered for the first time that [tomatoes] are carnivorous predators who kill insects in order to "self-fertilise" themselves.

New research shows that they capture and kill small insects with sticky hairs on their stems and then absorb nutrients through their roots when the animals decay and fall to the ground.

It is thought that the technique was developed in the wild in order to supplement the nutrients in poor quality soil – but even domestic varieties grown in your vegetable patch retain the ability.


And they're not the only ones. Potatoes are also insect killers! In fact, according to researchers, "We may be surrounded by many more murderous plants than we think."

RELATED NEWS: Giant rat-eating plant found.

28 Comments:

Blogger MushroomCloud said...

I always wondered why tomaatoes had those little hairs!! I always suspected they were evil!!! I wonder how I can use this... perhaps on my enemies...

4:30 PM  
Anonymous gymnast20 said...

wow i have to applaud the author for making natural occurence sound so evil!! And also these foods can eat all thee bugs they want i dont like them anyway :)

6:33 PM  
Blogger Kitty said...

TOMATOES!!!!!!!!!!!~

6:38 PM  
Blogger Kinga said...

I read about this yesterday, I think it's amazing!

7:00 PM  
Anonymous Meredith said...

Developed? I think designed, but either way, that's awesome.

8:42 PM  
Anonymous CONCERNEDCITIZAN said...

i have a question about kiki 3. WHAT IS GONNA HAPPEN WHEN KIKI CLAIMS THE THRONE TO PROVOKIA!??!?!?!?!?!

9:13 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Aw man! I love tomatoes, now I'll never look at red little bug killers again!

9:48 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

That's really, um, wow! I never would of thought... But what happened to the shadow city store???? :(

9:55 PM  
Blogger brave chickens said...

Tomatoes, hehe, they're so round and squishable.

10:10 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

heheheh...i can't have them in the first place, i'm alergic to them. so i have never trusted them, either.

11:18 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

WeIrD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

=-o
!!!

But Cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Toodles***

4:23 AM  
Blogger Муравей said...

ahaha_))
crazy tomatoes are going to conquer our world) the are monsters, I forever knew it! ))

10:56 AM  
Anonymous Kiwi said...

Oh... wow. Thats... a little disturbing. I always thought tomatoes were nice.

12:22 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Tomatos - are evil?! What about bob from vegetales (please tell me im not the only one in the wrold who has heard of them!!)

6:13 PM  
Blogger MushroomCloud said...

heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy... I'm allergic too. I still like them though.... and in case you were wondering, I do have lots of enemies... mainly ............. ALPACKAS........

6:20 PM  
Blogger Reel Dancer said...

attack of the plants!!!!! :)

6:36 PM  
Anonymous bananaphone said...

that is the most coolest picther i have seen in my life.i meen killer tomatos. totaly awsome.i have never fully trusted tomatos too.now i am scard of tomatos.(i have hated the my houl life too)it is scary because i grow them in my backyard.

3:06 PM  
Anonymous bananaphone said...

iyou are not the only peson in the world that knows vegtales anonymous.and bob is a tomato.( you know that wright. i think so)and i am tiping on a laptop,and i got it yesterdy.(well... we got it UP yester day.)out of the blue queston,dose eny body else love the beatles.i want the betles rock band for christmas it would be SO cool to have one i would play it every day!
***tootles***

3:19 PM  
Anonymous Hope was here said...

Scarey1 but I'm with Anonymous
9:55pm, what did happen to the shadow city store!!!!! :(

12:49 AM  
Anonymous Forrester said...

AHA! I only like tomatoes on bruscetta and in pizza sauce and have been telling people for years that tomatoes are EVILLL but did anyone believe me? Nooo. Then some stuffy guy in a white coat comes along and everyone believes HIM. What kind of world do we live in?

P.S. Anonymous @6:13: I used to watch Vegietales all the time.

10:18 AM  
Blogger Ellie said...

I never really liked tomatoes when they weren't cooked or in ketchup. Now i have reason: no evil hairs to make me fall over and decompose for 'self-fertilising'!

10:26 AM  
Anonymous Meredith said...

I also watched Veggietales, but I grew up on more classic stuff like Doug, Pepper Ann, and Recess, accompanied by of course, Scooby Doo.

4:30 PM  
Anonymous EQ said...

Oy. And they're trying to engineer bigger tomatoes...are they crazy?

Mushroom Cloud: Do you have many insect enemies? And out of curiosity, 1. how do you make an enemy of an alpaca and 2. are they as evil as sheep? (Perhaps the wool is a CLUE!)

Forrester: yeah, the guy in the white coat is much more believable. I guess it's the unfortunate flip side to looking sweet and innocent: No one listens to us!

2:54 PM  
Anonymous Natasha (Undercover Name) said...

So basically when I eat a tomato I'm eating a fly? Creepy! I really underestimated the evilness of tomatoes...

By the by, I LOVE this blog and your books!

8:48 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHAHAAHHAHAHAAHYAHHAAHHAAHAHHAAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



sorry

HILARIOUS!!

10:12 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I SAW THAT MOVIE!!!!! it was cheesy, and i don't mean cheddar. ;P
man of many faces :P ;P :D ;D :O ;O

10:44 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

HAHAHAHAHHAHAAHHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

sorry

Realy funny

^.^ hee!

4:32 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I saw that movie it was SSSSSSSSSSSSSSOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!cheesy

60's

tif!

^.^ hee!

4:37 PM  

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