These very hungry caterpillars can quickly destroy your tomato crop.
Find out how to recognize and control tomato hornworms.
Their green coloring is excellent camouflage as they crawl around your tomato plants.
Credit: Denny Schrock
However, you’ll want to keep an eye out for them so they don’t ruinyour tomato crop.
What is a tomato hornworm?
A tomato hornworm is the larva of a hawk moth, also called ahummingbird moth.
Credit: Adam Albright
The tiny caterpillars hatch in about a week and quickly grow as they feed.
They reach full size in three to four weeks.
What do tomato hornworms eat?
They start feeding on the leaves near the top of a plant, creating leafless stems.
Older hornworms will eat fruit too.
As the caterpillars feed, they leave behind dark green or black droppings.
The droppings tend to collect on lower leaves and are clearly visible.
Check plants at least twice a week for feeding damage and droppings.
If you see any, look closely until you spot the hornworms, which are usually nearby.
The caterpillars feed continuously, so any time of day will work for going on a hornworm hunt.
The best way to get rid of hornworms is to pick them off the plant by hand.
Pesticides are generally not necessary.
Handpicking will usually control a tomato hornworm problem.
Preventing a Hornworm Infestation
Discourage hornworms from taking up residence byremoving nearby weeds.
Fewer weeds means fewer places for hornworm moths to lay eggs.
Tilling the soil after harvest is another effective prevention strategy because it destroys burrowing caterpillars and their cocoons.
you might also rely on several natural enemies of tomato hornworms.
Tiny parasitic wasps (not harmful to humans) target hornworms as hosts.
Those are the cocoons of the wasp larvae that have fed on the caterpillar.
New parasitic wasps will soon hatch out of them, so leave any parasitized hornworms in place.
Help out these hardworking, beneficial insects byavoiding pesticide use.
