Mr. tomato hornworm - found first one today

15 years ago

Ok, first let me say, that for about 10 years - the only things i'd grown were tomatoes and peppers, because of available space. So, naturally, I had dealt with the tomato hornworm - and every year I would find the worms after alot of damage had already been done.(Those little #@%&*#@'s don't play around!) Now, fast forward to current garden - and I have literally inspected every leaf at least once per day, because I really don't want any problems - and I also only have 6 plants. When I first put the transplants into the garden, I found several round, clear spheres attached to the stems, and also to the underside of leaves. As I would find them - I would squash them with something. Lo and behold - today, I noticed a little green worm on one of my plants, and when I picked him up and inspected him closer - it was a baby hornworm. Holy crap! I thought that the worms showed up when they were fully grown, but I see that I was wrong about that! Of course, I will still inspect the leaves daily - but my main question is.....is it possible that the little round spheres found earlier in the year were actually the beginning stage of the hornworm? If not, how do they get there?

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Comments (10)

digdirt2
15 years ago
Moth places the eggs one at a time on both the lower and upper surface of leaves in late spring. The eggs hatch in six to eight days. They are oval, smooth, light green to yellow. They are singles, not clusters.

When they hatch the worms are no bigger than the rim of white on your little fingernail. But they grow FAST!! If you wait until they are the typical 4" easier-to-find-monster before finding them a lot of damage has been done.

Google "tomato hornworm" for many photos and details.

Good luck.

Dave
bdobs
15 years ago
How long do they last before they become the moths?
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Your tomato/tobacco hornworm will eat the leaves of tomato, preferrably, though they can be found on other members of the Solanaceae family such as pepper and potato, though grudgingly. There are a few native weeds in this plant family, but you would have to look them up since I don't know where you live. Most of those plants are considered toxic....Solanaceae is the Nightshade family. That's pretty much it. They are not generalists but very host specific. The lids of water are useless. Spray the leaves occasionally with water. Captive caterpillars often succumb to disease if in the hands of someone who has not learned the rudiments of caring for them. That would be most of us! To go along with your philosophy, releasing them into the 'wild' without an appropriate food source would be cruel. They would suffer a slow death of starvation. I suggest that you either sacrifice your own tomato plant, or get some more tomato plants, or serve them up to the birds in your garden by placing them in the bird bath or feeder. That would be a good thing to do, right? In nature, there are many pests and parasites that help control these particular caterpillars. Very few of the many that are hatched actually make it to adulthood.
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Inspection is fine, but I do what Jay does. BT treatments every 2-3 weeks religiously and I don't have to worry. That's a lot of BT being used Jay. I tried it years ago with the hose end and a bottle gets used up in one treatment. So, I went back to a pump sprayer I'm trying something different this year -- most pesticides tell you to thoroughly cover under and upper leaf surfaces. But BT isn't a contact killer. So... I said why not try just spraying the upper surfaces? All that needs to happen is the caterpillars eat some treated foliage and they're dead. My parasitic wasps might be playing a bigger part in control than in years past; but, so far, so good with the new technique. Kevin
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Raybo: Yamagami's has BT. Don't bother with Lowe's or Home Depot around here. I found a "few" last year and just hand picked them off. However, there was a funny story. My wife, who happens to hardly go into the garden, was looking at the tomatoes. She happened to grab onto one of the branch and just happened to touch a full sized horn worm. Mine you this woman screams at every little bug she sees. She said she screamed loudly then looked around to make sure the neighbors were not looking. LOL. Hmmm, maybe I will buy some from you guys to scare the wife. hee hee. I think this year, when I find leaves half eaten, I will prune the entire branch off so I can tell when there are "new" catepillars/hornworms. Thanks for info on Katydid Damon. However, my 2 year old niece-in-law is named Katy. So when their parents ask me what ate my tomato plants, I can't tell them Katydid or I might get a dirty look ;-).
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Arrrrrrrrrrrrgh!!!!!!!!My very first and second tomato hornworms!
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After the scary-but-harmless caterpillar photos, I'm going to link to a cute one: the puss moth caterpillar. I saw one a couple of years ago on a daylily leaf just a few feet from my house. There's a lilac nearby; they like to feed on shrubs. Luckily I had my pockets and both hands full of seed pods from various daylilies (and was trying not to forget which seeds were from which daylilies), or I might have tried to pet it. And there was a small voice inside my head that told me that was a bad idea. Scroll down to see it in all its fuzzy white glory: http://www.hort.net/lists/spaceagerobin/aug04/msg00047.html The white coloring is less common; they also come in grey, taupe, brown, yellow, and pale orange. This type always makes me think of 1950s rock singers (male) with curly pompadour hairdos: http://insects.about.com/od/butterfliesmoths/ig/Stinging-Caterpillars/Puss-Caterpillar.htm Well, it could be worse: there are copperheads around here; at least I haven't found any of them in my backyard! Photos of other dangerous caterpillars (unfortunately not always describing where they are found): http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/nature/news-ten-creepy-and-colorful-caterpillar-hazardous-human-health
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larryw
15 years ago
These, like spiders, are another of Mother Nature's nasty
jokes and are not intended to be loved.

Dispatch them immediately with great joy and a sense of accomplishment!

Otherwise, they will outlast your tomato plants forever!
containerted
15 years ago
Interesting, I squeezed and popped a small yellowish pea-sized globule of clear liquid just 10 minutes ago. I've raised tomatoes for decades and never did any research on these things. Back to my plants for another inspection.

I HATES HORNWORMS!!!!!
containerted
15 years ago
I guess I'm still learning. My "globule" was one of those moisture thingies in potting soil. Embarrassing at my age, but I'll still walk my plants twice a day. I raise everything in containers and can walk behind the line to get the morning sun behind the leaves. Helps define any thingies that ain't supposed to be there.

And, again, like Yosemite Sam would say,

I HATES HORNWORMS!!!!!
penserosa
15 years ago
Hey Yosemite, me too! I loves me some paper wasps, though - used to be afraid of 'em until I realized they were eating my tomato hornworms and corn earworms.

Here's a funny (sorta) link:

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/chatham/ag/SustAg/underworldtomatoleaf.html

lots of pics - including hornworm eggs...roll over pics for captions.

Pat

Here is a link that might be useful: The fabulous underworld of a tomato canopy
k2marsh
15 years ago
Tobacco Horn Worm

I havenÂt had a Tomato Hornworm on my tomatoes so far.

My first tobacco hornworm this year was found June 12, 2008. It was the smallest hornworm I had ever seen.

I get two stick and use them as chop sticks to take the hornworms off of my tomatoes.

I had a lot of hornworms, but the wasps, and birds seem to have gotten the ones that I couldnÂt find. Hornworms are nothing compared to the cabbage loppers.

See the photo of the Tobacco Hornworm that I had last year.

Atlanta, Georgia

Karyl
====

Here is a link that might be useful: My Flicker Photo of Tobacco Hornworm
engineeredgarden
Original Author
15 years ago
Another successful morning eliminating the little devils. I got my wife to help me, and we found approximately 30 of the spheres, and about 10 baby worms - I will sleep much better tonight.
raisemybeds
15 years ago
I am paying a "bounty" of $3. per hornworm to my teen son this year. Posted yesterday. He is all over it.
penserosa
15 years ago
Oooh - what a great idea!

Mr. tomato hornworm - found first one today

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digdirt2

bdobs

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Mr. tomato hornworm - found first one today

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