It’s my first year growing tomatoes and I’ve been cursed by these creatures eating my six innocent plants. Finding and killing them was traumatizing but I will press on in the name of delicious tomatoes. I will be buying a black light and the Bt spray. Wish me luck. Over and out.
by No-Outside6863
38 Comments
God’s speed!
My first year gardening I was traumatized by them as well. They get so large!!
I found Captain Jack’s Dead Bug Brew and I’ve not seen another since.
They turn into a cool moth. Just dump them in a wooded or grassy area. They’re also good food for birds. I also feel it’s traumatizing to kill them.
I have some dwarf varieties in containers and was fed up so flipped them upside down and sprayed the shit out of them. On 6 plants a total of 30 small to medium sized guys fell off. I need to get bt spray too.
Cutting them in half when you find them is pretty good therapy.
If you don’t want to do any kind of treatment, buy a blacklight flashlight on Amazon for about $10. Check your plants at night with it, the hornworms will glow a bright green flourescent color.
If you DON’T enjoy worm hunting at night, you can pick up a spary bottle of BT (Bacillus Thurengsis) which is organic, and only harmful to caterpillars.
Either method will eliminate them.
Time to go fishin.
The very first hornworm I ever dealt with sprayed me in the face with a bunch of green gunk because I was trying to pry it off a leaf 😵
I just cut the part of the branch its on now
Sound like your ecosystem isn’t healthy. I live in Northern California and we have a lot of birds and lizards. I don’t have a problem with bugs.
They’re great fishing bait.
I hate them. All my hard work and they just come up and eat my stuff
Also my first year growing tomatoes, and I found 2 of these buggers yesterday 😳 my husband tried to pick one off but it made this crazy clicking sound at him so we just chopped the branch and moved it across the yard, same thing for the second one. Here’s hoping they don’t come back. UV light ordered and en route… 😖
I’m away from the garden for a week. I’m afraid of what I may find when I return.
This is where NSFW comes in. ugh
When I had them, the wasps that lay eggs in them got to them. Ate them from the inside out when hatched. That’ll teach them a lesson.
Plant lots of basil and marigolds around your tomatoes next time. I haven’t seen a horn worm on my tomatoes ever since I started doing this.
I once found one living in my Marijuana plant tent. He was about a pound. And super lethargic lol. Full of bud. Little shits lol
My chickens and turkeys love these. I go out at night to look for them with a black light
Don’t kill them:( just release them somewhere, they’re incredibly important for wildlife
It’s crazy, I get them a lot on this bush in my front yard, and they’ll do some heavy feeding, but not enough to noticeably harm the bush. I don’t get any on my 20 tomatoes!
Don’t buy weird things. Just put the orange peels (in half) on the ground and they like to find a safe place to stay. Very early in the morning you will find them there. It works like magic. I have marigolds and lobularia maritima near to the tomatoes. Those flowers attract wasps and ladybugs and they will keep them away.
I’ve put old cans around the base of my plants and that seems to help a little. I also feed these to my neighbor’s chickens and put them in my bird feeder. These little bastards are gonna learn one of these days! Lol
The killing part is not really necessary. Put them on a sidewalk or driveway and birds will take care of them rather quickly.
My controversial hot take is that I hate these far more than SVB.
Squash at least can grow and produce in a few short weeks. Tomatoes? My little babies I nurtured for weeks indoors when it was cold, protected after transplanting, and dutifully fertilize and care for the whole season…. And to have plants practically stripped to twigs overnight?
Yeah, I positively fucking **loathe** the hornworms.
I’m super lucky, everytime I see these, I see those wonderful wasp eggs all over them 🙂
Those grow into hummingbird moths which are factually way cooler than you are
Thuricide for controlling caterpillars. Its all organic no pesticides.
If you can’t bring yourself to kill the, Put them in the middle of a path or open space and let the birds do it. Encourages birds and you don’t feel as guilty. (there’s still a little guilt, but nowhere near as much)
I feed them to my chickens.
We used mesh bags this year; and, so far, so good! Three tomatoes in.
They’ve been eating good.
If you know anyone with chickens they would LOVE to take those ugly fellas off your hands.
I’ve had some last year but wasps laid eggs in or on each one that I found so I left them alone. They stopped eating right after. Oddly satisfying.
You need to be more diligent in your daily checking!Even better little tip, buy yourself a 365 nm UV flashlight and head out at night those things glow like a radioactive rod.
For a minute there, I thought you had put those suckers in a blender right before hitting the power button.
🤮
Are they good as fishing bait? Somebody please test this out!
Yeah, hornworms are nasty buggers. Try putting a bird feeder near your garden, I did as a response to grasshoppers eating my basil and haven’t had an issue with insects at all this year