Horn Worms - Yuck

14 years ago

I guess I jinxed myself by saying I hadn't had a hormworm since I moved to this house, because I just found three huge ones. I have three or four spring planted tomatoes that are still producing a few tomatoes, but I don't check them everyday. They are not in my main garden and are extremely stressed. They are next to a cantaloupe vine that has twisted up through the cages, so I just left them when I tore out the other vines. I carefully checked my fall planted vines and don't see any damage on those. I will now keep a closer eye on the good plants.

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Comments (9)

Lisa_H OK
14 years ago
ohhhhh, you didn't kill the poor horn worms, did you? lol :) Too bad I don't live closer ...

Lisa
soonergrandmom
Original Author
14 years ago
Funny you should respond because I thought of you as I was stomping. LOL
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Lisa_H OK
14 years ago
LOL
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
14 years ago
I tolerate them all spring and summer, and often move them to daturas and other plants they like, or to 'leftover' tomato plants I stuck in the ground outside the garden specifically for them.

I love the moths, but....

When the cats start showing up on the handful of fall tomato plants that I have in Sept.-Oct., they have committed a fatal error. They can get away with munching on my plants when I have 100 plants. Once I'm down to 10-20 plants, they're out of luck.
elkwc
14 years ago
If they choose to munch on my tomato plants then they have wrote their death decree. Jay
mjandkids
14 years ago
Fought these ugly creatures all year. I lost 2 tomato plants when we went out of town for a few days and came back to yet another infestation. They seemed to love my potatoes but I didn't lose them. My peppers took a while coming back too. They seem to come in waves around here. Hate them. Hate them. HATE THEM!!! My husband takes great pleasure in pulling them off the branches with a set of pliers and drowning them.

My 6 year old is amazing at spotting them, so it seems, so next year that's going to be her job. My 4 year old seems only interested in harvesting and cooking. Though he does seem to like stirring dirt before I put the plants in the ground.
elkwc
14 years ago
Like I mentioned in another thread the moring we got our first hard freeze and ice storm I got my pleasure. I had been gone a few days. There was an ice covered frozen horn worm on a plant I had picked several off of. Served him right. He got his just reward for munching on my maters. Jay
mjandkids
14 years ago
Yay Jay! I agree, he got his just desserts lol. I know some people like them but I don't have a single use for them and wish them gone :-)

Mandy
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
14 years ago
I have mixed feelings about them. We love the sphinx moths they ultimately turn into, so I usually just try to move the big green cats to the daturas or to native nightshade plants in the pasture and hope they don't return to the tomato beds.

If too many hornworms start to appear in the veggie garden at one time, I get rid of them, usually by snipping them in half with my garden scissors. (Since I don't like having their green ooze on the scissors, I then have to stop and go clean off the scissors.)

I found one on my Jetstar tomato plant, which still has oodles of green tomatoes on it, on Saturday, so I picked that leaflet off the plant and took the leaf/hornworm to the #1 Rooster to see what he would do. (A caterpillar of any kind in the fenced chicken run is an occasion for lots of entertainment for the chickens....and for us.)

I figured the #1 Rooster would eat it, but he didn't. Instead, he turned around and looked at his favorite hen, and she ran up and snatched it. We then had a wild chicken race for a couple of minutes as the other hens and the #2 and #3 roosters all chased #1 hen (a gorgeous Buff Orpington) and tried to take the worm from her. In the end, she ate the worm, no one ate the tomato leaf, and we had one happy hen and one proud Rooster. The rest of the poultry watched me rather anxiously for the remainder of my time outside, but I didn't find any cats to bring to them.

It wasn't much, but such activity as we had in the chicken run passes for cheap entertainement out here in the sticks. It doesn't take much to entertain us on a quiet autumn afternoon.

Dawn