Borage is a plant you can grow near your tomatoes. It is supposed to help repel the tomato hornworm moth. I am trying it for the first time this year, so I don't personally know it's effectiveness yet. Time will tell....

Thanks, I'll give borage a try...smells good, and the flowers are so pretty. I've also come across some information about "mineralizing" the soil (adding minerals) Seems that our soils may be lacking minerals and that contributes to a fundamentally weaker plant. Feed the soil (good stuff, not chems) and the bugs don't bother the plants. They seem to go for the weaker ones. Any theories out there to float about this?

Fostering a healthy soil is always an important step in growing vigorous plants. Healthy plants are less susceptible to pest problems and will recover faster from an outbreak. But as long as there are tomatoes, there will be hornworms, aphids, whitefly, etc. no matter how healthy the plants are. Getting the soil in shape (with organic matter) is just an important step.