Found this fat fellow having himself a nice nibble
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/17588319
[Image description: a thicc green hornworm hanging onto the stem of a tomato plant. The hornworm is speckled with little white dots, has eyespots and angular white stripes down his side, and the namesake sharp little spike of a horn on its butt.]
Always double check that they are still active before killing them. I've found several on my tomatos before that have been essentially paralyzed. If you let them be, you'll see some cocoons of these parasitic wasps show up on their back. They will then go seek and destroy any others in your garden.
Don't know the range of those wasps, but I'm in inland southern California, and I don't think I've ever spotted a worm with them. Kinda glad of that tbh, the whole idea gives me the heebie geebies.
I don't know. I suspect that since it is a specific predator that has co-evolved with tomato hornworms, they would completely overlap ranges. Looking at the map of observations people have put on iNaturalist, though, it does not look like they are in your area, so who knows.
They can be very useful and are even used in homes to fight pests.
When I was a kid I had a dog who loved to put these guys in his mouth. He'd come in with a funny look on his face, we'd lift up his lips and he'd have one or several of them tucked up between his gums and cheek like it was tobacco. No idea why that was so appealing to him.
They have nicotine in them, your dog was probably buzzed
If you’ve got one you probably have a bunch. Check under every leaf and get rid of those fuckers.
I wish that they were the biggest problem bug for my tomatoes, but that title goes to the godforsaken spider mites. They decimate my plants every summer as soon as the weather turns hot, and I've tried so many things to combat them.
This year I've applied a couple rounds of predator mites, and in addition to some ruthless pruning of affected plants, I feel like I'm actually holding ground in the battle. Though really hoping that the predator mites will establish a population, as they're a pricy solution.
I encountered these assholes for the first time last summer in my little box garden. I love caterpillars, so when I saw one I left him alone to snack. The next day I found close to 10 more and my plants were in bad shape.
When I was a kid once of my chores was to check for these little fuckers on my mom's organic tomatoes, since she never used pesticides.
She did buy Mantis egg cases every year but they weren't enough to stop them all. On the plus side, that area developed a population of mantises at least partially because of them.
Is it just perspective or is this thing MASSIVE?
These fuckers get huge, fast. They will strip your tomato plant bare if you don't catch them early.
They can get quite large and will decimate a tomato plant in a day. Suffice to say, there are no survivors in my mother's garden.
Death to Hornworms!!!
Shame the adult moths look so cool ;_;
I know! Also, they are pollinators. And it tickles when they lick drops of water off one's fingertips. But I will not dissuade myself.
Kill that plush looking muthafucka.
My first year gardening I found one of these. Not knowing what it was I put it in a Mason jar and crammed in the rest of the branch it was feasting on. By the next day it had devoured every bit of it and looked like it was starving
Nice photo, I hate it but I like it... but I hate it... but I like it...
They're terrible, but damn if those eye spots don't look like they belong in a surrealist painting. Bugs are neat (and terrible).
I presume it went for a swim in the soapy water jar moments thereafter?
I usually put them out on my driveway and it doesn't take long before a bird spots my tasty snack offering. Someday I'd love to have chickens to give them to instead.
Great idea. I've got a family of crows on the property that appreciate big bug snacks.
We feed them to our chickens 😝🐔