TOMATO HORNWORM??? I have been searching, and that appears to be what this is. I WANT TO KILL IT WITH FIRE!!!!

Yes they can devastate a plant. I have my share every year. Jay

I just moved one of those worms from one of my pepper plants and placed it on a worn out tomato plant.

I think it is a Tobacco hornworm. I did not know the difference until someone on the forum posted a couple of weeks ago. Judging from the pictures, mine are tobacco hornworm. I have moved 8 to the old tomato plants, but can only find 2. I may be feeding the birds.

Mark, it's a tobacco worm, not a tomato worm. The one you found is nearly full grown. Yes, they do like the hotter pepper plants, too. Unlike ripe or even just starting to turn tomatoes, these cats will readily eat ripe, red peppers. Capsiacin does not bother them. in fact, it benefits them as much as it does us.

I rear hornworms and breed the moths. I welcome any and all pupae sent to me, too. Those cats need to be relocated to spent tomatoes or peppers or some solanaceous weed as per suggested in some of my prior posts. It's bad to just kill them as our state has seen such decline in recent years and sphinx moths are vital for not only the pollination of peppers, but many other plants, especially night bloomers.

I know we compete with the larvae for the actual ripe fruit of hot chilis, but one thing to bear in mind, is that whenever a hornworm eats a pepper, they do NOT eat their seeds! I believe the chemicals in a ripe pepper help draw the cat to eat the flesh and actually expose the seeds for easier dispersion--in order to grow more peppers. Now for the plant and cat--that's mutualistic symbiosis, a fact of nature worthy of respect!

Mark, the reason they seem to appear overnight is that there are tiny one hiding on the stems of the plant. They then grow at a prodigious rate. You can hand pick them, which is probably about as effective in control as anything. It's been a very hard year in the garden here. I had several habanero plants at the beginning. But lost all but one. Then, the worms hit. In one day they stripped it of all leaves! That was over a month ago. Now the plant has leafed out and is flowering. I don't know if I'll get fruit. But surely it's trying.

Yes, it is normal for Jalepe�os to have a purple tone to them when they are still green. They will turn red when ripe. Congratulations on your garden. Sounds like you are having a relatively good year!

George
Tahlequah, OK

You're so right about the caterpillars, George. I tell visitors when they see my captive hornworms, how they got so big in only 3 weeks. I hatch enough from the ova to tell almost to the day [it still varies], how long to pupate. When hornworms hatch from their literally pinhead-sized ova, they are approximately 1/32" x 3/16" and that's still considerably smaller than the horn on a 3" cat! Their filamental black horn is a surprising 1/8" long too. They rather grow into it.
At first, they are translucent yellow. They have ot eat something before they get green. It takes 5-7 days, for them to achieve just 3/4" to 7/8". They will only be 1/8" diameter, too. They are tiny and soooo fragile. I still avoid physically touching them to the best of my ability, when so small. Also, they don't achieve their characteristic stripes until they are at least 3/4" to 1". Again, it will vary a bit.
From 1" to 2" only takes 5-6 more days. Seven more days, and the cats are as big as most adult fingers! While we may not observe the cat's earliest stages, their growth is exponential. Depending on diet, 3 to 3.5 weeks will send most tobacco hornworms to the pupating medium. The big caterpillars will actually lose a little size/weight just prior to pupating, and change color, too. Some get a little reddish/pinkish, while others just go to a different hue of green, marked by slight translucense. I attribute the latter to the drop in chlorophyll since eating has stopped and the cat has fully purged itself.
The miracle of metamorphosis comes next. No other animals on earth do this, but certain insects. God only knows, because science can't even explain or unravel its mystery.