Never saw one (hornworm) on any of my hosta. They tend to prefer my tomatoes.

tj

OT...I HATE hornworms. In the past I have used rubber gloves to pull them off the plants and then flush them down the toilet with a couple extra flushes to make sure they didn't swim up. EEEuwwwwwwwwww.l This year I used spinosad (Captain Jack's Bug Brew) 2 times and have had no problems bug-wise on my tomatoes. For the first time in 35 years.

-Babka

From what the Internet said a" hummingbird moth" is not a danger to my plants as they suck nectar out of a straw like pipe or something and that is not saying when they are in the caterpillar stage it doesn't eat leaves.I found this picture on the Internet and looks like this.

Not sure if it is the same as a horn worm but if I saw a worm like that I would have a tendency of squashing it too. I once found an ugly pack rat in a shed and squashed it between two sheets of plywood screaming the whole time,then flushed it down the sewage clean out stand. I had nightmares of it for weeks about those beady black eyes so may not flush them. We don't live there anymore lol

Haven't checked on whether or not larvae of the hummingbird moth is a hornworm. What I do sounds nasty, but it really isn't and it is definitely fata to hornworms on my toms. I use Ace florists scissors and cut them in half. I don't have to touch them and they just fall to the ground.

Almosthooked, could you try to get a picture of one not in "hover mode" for us? :)

Fast and noisy little critters aren't they.

Les

The one at my house prefers the Buddleia to my Hostas. The antennae are the indication he's a bug, not a bird. He won't bother your Hostas.

{{gwi:1054988}}

Steve

i am not quite awake..

i thought they liked honeysuckle as caterpillars??

but maybe that was one of the other giant moths ...

ken

They are not tomato or tobacco hornworms. That would be a sphinx moth. The hummingbird, or clearwing moth, while it is a hornworm caterpillar, feeds on hawthorn and related species.

There are around a thousand different hornworm moths all over the world so it is a big family, and each one feeds on something different.

Sandy

There are many varieties of hummingbird moths and nearly all have hornworm caterpillars. Around here it's likely to be the white lined sphinx moth (Hyles lineata). Steve showed us a nice shot of one of the Clearwing moths (Hemaris thysbe, I think), one of the MA hummingbird moths.

Ken, some Clearwings (Hemaris diffinis, for one) are known to like honeysuckle leaves as caterpillars, perhaps others as well.

tj

Here is a link that might be useful: White lined sphinx Images

I had some white-lined sphinx moth cats munching away on my gaura earlier in the summer. They looked pretty awesome, so I let them be. I have lots of gaura so they weren't destroying anything.

{{gwi:273000}}

{{gwi:273002}}

Karen

Nice shots Karen! I too let them live but move them off my tomatoes.

tj

Thanks! It was almost dark outside when I took the pictures, that's why they are grainy. I think the patterns on them are really cool.

Karen