Tomato Horn Worm ? ID

It was all over the leaves of my tomato plants, even the higher-up ones, so it's something that climbs or hops. It's also on the ground outside the tomato boxes. Could it be a large caterpillar (which I found)? Frog/toad? Mole? Doesn't look like mouse poop, it's not oblong, but round. In the picture is also my partially-eaten young green tomato. The saucer is regular coffee cup size, for context.

did you find a worm that looked like this?


http://www.coopext.colostate.edu/4dmg/Pests/tomato.htm

Sure looks like tomato hornworm poop and damage.

I was thinking the same thing possible Tomato Hornworm poop

camprn wrote:did you find a worm that looked like this?

boffer wrote:

camprn wrote:did you find a worm that looked like this?

Yeah, no kidding, I found a small one(2") yesterday, I pulled it off the tomatoes and it began to squirm... of course the veteran gardener that I am I went "AAAAAAAAAAHHHHH, ick, ick" and it flicked into the midst of the tomato bed. I have not found it again... yet.

Oh no! Don't look for a 2" worm now... he's probably 5" or more. Those things really DO grow fast. If you find fresh THW poop, look for the worm above the poop.

THAT'S IT!!!

Waaa.

No, I haven't seen the culprit, but I could have been looking right at him. Now that I'm aware, I'll search more tomorrow.

I had heard something about keeping them on your plants because they host something or other. From this link, I found out more about it. It can host the parasitic wasp which I guess is a good hornworm killer - but it has to have those white things growing on it. Otherwise, kill the hornworm:

http://www.bukisa.com/videos/92474_tomato-hornworm-invasion

Aye yi yi. Tomorrow I have my work cut out for me, looking for this (these) things.

Thank you!

Edit: Oh DUH. I said in the original post that I found a large caterpillar. I meant GRASSHOPPER. I didn't find a caterpillar and wasn't even thinking caterpillar. And here it IS a caterpillar. Maybe my subconscious knew.... ohhh.... freaky....

Edit Edit: camprn, I see your link also talks about the parasitic wasp. Also, I'm sorry about your accidental fling!!! Maybe you flung him somewhere else and a bird ate him. Otherwise, we'll both be out there going blind tomorrow - ha. Good luck!

EEK .....Boffer do we have them in the PNW?.....those things are huge



hugs

rose.....who thought getting rid of slugs was bad.....ewww...

I have never seen a hornworm or a squash vine borer in my 30 years of gardening in the PNW. I would like to know if anyone here has seen either one of them.

I have never seen a squash vine borer either here in SD or when I was in CA, but I certainly saw tomato horn worms in CA!!!



GG

At 7:30 this morning I was out there, and found NINE hornworms on my 8 tomato plants! One was a baby about 3/4" long, one was a big fat juicy one about 3" long, and the rest were about 1 1/2" long. No wonder my tomato plants weren't thriving! They weren't really defoliated, but they were thin and wilty.

I probably missed one or two - I'll have to keep checking every day for hornworms. Now that I know what to look for, thanks to this place!

(another note for next year...)

oooooooh, good hunting! Well done!

FamilyGardening wrote:EEK .....Boffer do we have them in the PNW?....

Not that I know of. I never heard of them until last year, right here on the forum. I figure that having no hornworms or SVB is our consolation for unpredictably lousy weather!

How in the world do hornworms find their way onto a previously-ungardened, fairly isolated lot, straight to the fenced tomato plants grown from seeds?

NHGardener wrote:How in the world do hornworms find their way onto a previously-ungardened, fairly isolated lot, straight to the fenced tomato plants grown from seeds?

Um... Butterfly Mommies can fly.

NHGardener wrote:How in the world do hornworms find their way onto a previously-ungardened, fairly isolated lot, straight to the fenced tomato plants grown from seeds?

The mamma probably laid the eggs right there.

I pulled about 7 of them off the other day, I recycled them into chicken poop.

Make that THIRTEEN (or 14, memory lapse there) hornworms this morning! I just found 3 more (or was it 4) 1 1/2" long ones, and one 1"-er. I'm shocked my tomato plants are even still alive. Only 8 plants. I did start to notice all my stem stumps. I hope they recover.

You mean beautiful butterflies lay these nasty things????? I'll never look at a butterfly the same way again. (Go get the swatter, Harry...)

Valerie, did your chickens eat them whole? I had to offer them worm halves before they even took interest.

I like to watch them fight over the bugs, so I toss them out to them whole. I do stand nearby to make sure every worm and every squash bug gets eaten though. We've been feeding them bugs since they were about 6 weeks old, my daughter even raided the compost pile for worms to feed them before the garden was in full swing, so they are used to getting bugs.

NHGardener wrote:

You mean beautiful butterflies lay these nasty things????? I'll never look at a butterfly the same way again. (Go get the swatter, Harry...)

It is actually a beautiful Sphinx Hawk Moth
http://www.garden-planting-tips.com/tomato-hornworm.html

FarmerValerie said:

I pulled about 7 of them off the other day, I recycled them into chicken poop.

I love it - the ultimate gardener's revenge!!!

Wow - those moths are big. I'll keep an eye out for those. Obviously we have them.

Meanwhile, it is now time to go out and check again for ol Mr. Caterpillar. Your article states they also eat pepper plants, so I better check my peppers, and eggplants...

Oh yeah!!! Good luck!

Yup, well that would be 2 more smaller ones, about 1". That brings the total to 15-16 for 8 plants, I'd call that an infestation. I imagine there's more.

I dunno. I'm thinking maybe just growing the tomatoes in pots next summer on the deck, further apart from each other, easier to inspect, less easy for the 'pillars to move from one plant to the next...

If I move my squash out next summer too, I may end up having more growing outside my boxes than inside - ha. Wouldn't mind a box or 2 set aside for strawberries tho.

(camprn - what's that picture of?)