EEEuuuuu!
The tomato horn worms are attacking my garden. I thought they were just cute little catepillars when I noticed one and removed it from my garden a couple of weeks ago. And I forgot about it. Now, lots of the stalks are eaten dead.
My neighbors tell me I have to pick them off and squish them dead. EEeeeuuu! I’m heading over to a garden center tomorrow to see what kind of spray I can use.
Kalilily Time
Just an old lady talking to herself
Last year my tomatoes were worm free.
This year I know I have at least one worm as the branches on one plant have been eaten and the worms “bunnies” are on the ground under the plant!
But unless you are lucky, you can never find the worm to “kill” it!
But I love tomatoes and they are all I grow in my limited space garden. That is unless you count the “weeds” which have no trouble at all with worms or any other kind of animal and keep growing and growing non stop!
See the picture!
Of course, that picture is my exaggeration of the actual situation. Actually, the horn worms come out toward the evening, so you can see them. They don’t like the sun. They’re as big as a human finger and are quite pretty, actually.
They seem tasty on FearFactor!
My husband steps on them and, depending on how big they are, they can make a loud pop and they ooze green blood! YUUUKKKKEEEEE!!!!!!
I live in the Arizona desert with NO tomato plants around us at all. Can someone explain where these worms might be coming here from and for?
i have a dicusting tomoto worm in my garden
it is feral it bit me now im sick fukin worms
hi we used to hve a big problem with tomato worms but we found a solution.. chickens.. thats right bantum chickens love them and they also provide the garden with a great rich manure. the only bad part is you can only get one or two chickens and no roosters they cant tell time and they love to crow at 4 am so just chickens and your problems are solved unless you live in a area where you cant have them then pick the worms save them in a plastic bag and they are freezeable and dsave them up for your farmer friends they will thank you for them.. i had a lot of fun picking them when i was a kid but i dont miss them now … lots of luck
the tomato worms I am getting on our plants look like a prehistoric worms, big, dark green and wrinkles, it is the size of the end of your thumb.
Is that what ur all talking about?
I live on a second-story apartment and am growing tomatoes. Today I noticed a tomato worm on my plant. Can anyone explain to me how this might have occured? The only thing I can assume is maybe a bird dropping or somehow making its way up the drain. How can I prevent them from destroying my plant??
Thanks
I noticed some weird looking green grenade shaped turds on my deck, and then I looked at my potted tomatoes and peppers and I saw the beast. Oh, yes, they’re pretty so they blend in, but this flaming fatboy was EATING MY BURPEE TOMATO PLANTS.
Well, He didn’t get all of them yet, and had started on one and was working his way through the second one. I plucked him off with a plastic fork and tortured him with salt, citonella, and lit matches. Finally, I set him on fire, he rolled in the wax and suffocated. Nuff’ said.
My godmother used to drown Japanese beetles in soapy water. I guess I learned my no-mercy policy from her, a Master Gardner.
-MK
Worms on my tomatoes aren’t the hornworms, but cute little green worms that look like inchworms.
Any idea how to get rid of these, short of picking them off? They’re little and my eyes, they ain’t so good anymore.
way do the worms go under ground after they get
fat on my tomatos, and what do they do there?
They come from some type of moth and as worms they are in the larvae stage. I have had to kill at least 7 of them this season as they were eating and destroying my tomato garden (Bear,DE). In the morning sun, they tend to hang on a branch near the top of the plant. You can usually find them by following their trail of excretement. Lovely, huh? I recommend using a fork or other sharp gardening tool to remove and kill them. Otherwise, they will eat and grow larger. Their blood is a nice green color too!
Actually, I like hornworms. They are fun to rear and just fascinating. i remove them from my tomato plants so I can have control over which leaves, trimmings they can eat. I supplement with horsenettle, groundcherry and black nightshade–all of which is good for the tobacco and tomato hornworms.
I agree with Elaine. These are sphinx moth larvae and are quite beautiful! The pic at the top is a TOBACCO, not a tomato worm.
Dorothy, hornworms are native insects and feed on native, wild plants. That is where they belong. Tomatoes were inroduced and the sphinx are drawn to them. Where are you finding hornworms if you do not have tomatoes? Just the moths drawn to your light? Hornworms on other plants? There are many species of sphinx, too, and only a very few of them eat nightshades. Some feed exclusively on manzanita, legumes, succulents and many species of trees. those are harmless to our gardens and yards.
Will it kill me or eat me.
thank you
bob
I think they are nasty and freaky looking things. I want to get them off of my plants. I sprayes some insecticide on them and they are slowly falling to the ground. I want big red tomatoes, not some ugly green worms.
I want to know how to get rid of these BEASTS, short of finding them and picking them off. I did see a Cardinal on my tomato plants and was wondering what he was getting. Possibly the worms.
I have had them for years and never knew where they came from. Actually they are a beautiful specimen but I hate them.. You have to hunt for them and as far as I know they come out any time of the day. Once they get to a certain size, they can eat quite a bit of the plant in one day.
They are very aggressive. They have been known to bite. The only way to get rid of them is to pick them off the plant, I cut the branch off and kill them. I killed 19 today.
I came home from vacation and two of my tomato plants were destroyed. They ate the main trunk on one plant and the total top of another. Found 7 of these beast eating away. Picked them off and squashed their heads (back end kept moving). I noticed a small bee around their half dead bodies. Is there any spray I can buy to prevent these monsters. In the movie, “SOMMERBY” they have a scene about them and they used a soapy solution to prevent them. HELP!
I think they are ugly regardless of what anyone has to say. I just want to know how to get them off my plants without touching them or hunting them down. I guess I’ll go to the greenhouse tomorrow!
I have seen the specimen, the tobacco worm. It is often eaten fried with green tomatos. The worms are very tasty and the juice is a natural homosexual aphrodisiac. The tickle your funny bone if placed on a sensitive area of skin.
I noticed a tomato worm in the garden a few nights ago. Today we picked off upwards of 20 and put them in a can of kerosene – not very “humane” but I’d rather have the tomatoes. I also noticed a lot of little hornets hanging around the tomatoes, and then read at some university website that these cocoon stage of these hornets hang off the tomato worms when the worms are small, then when the hornets hatch they kill the worm and fly off and kill more worms. So the moral of the story is, if you come across a worm with a lot of little white things dangling from it, leave it. They’ll hatch and kill the worms. Nasty.
I have killed 4 or 5 of these little devils eating my Jalapenos and Hot Bannana peppers. Surprised me because I have grown hot peppers for years and never seen any animal or insect that messed with the hot stuff. Anyone know a cure? And… i don’t think they are so cute? Whats wrong wit you people? 🙂
I never had these monsters before, how do you get rid of them. picking them is a nasty job. HELP
After a green tomato worm destoyed one tomatoe plant, he went onto the next when I discovered him. Couldn’t pull him off the branch myself (yuk). My husband got him loose from the branch and as he was pulling him away the worm struck out at my husband and tried to bite him. I let him crawl off with the horses thinking they might step on him, but he kept steering towards my plants so I had to kill him with a shovel. Yes, their blood is green! Yuk!
I just picked two of these nasty beasts off my tomato plants after noticing lots of bare stems at the tops. Touch them? No way. I cut off the stem they were lurking on with a scissors. One of the two had those white protrusions mentioned above. I put them both in one of those bug viewers for my kids to see when they get home from camp. I guess I will put the infected one back in the garden after the kids get a look at it. But I’m telling you, my skin is crawling right now. Call me a girl, but GROSS.
picked 4 of them nasty critters off my tomato plants, oh about a week and a half ago. get em every year so always on the look out. anyhow, this year, i noticed something for the first time. i saw some dying leafs that were kind of folded up so i took one off and opened it up and wa la! a baby worm! bout a 1/4 inch long. started looking around and found a couple of dozen dying leafs and all had baby worms in them! we have a few sheep that keep the weeds down. i cut these leaves off and tossed them over the fence and the sheep love em.
These nasty tomato worms are invading my garden too. I have really enjoyed my garden and canning this year for the first time and now I may never eat another tomato again. My skin is crawling too!! I would rather chop down my garden than touch the thing. EEEUUUU!
We took our dogs out tonight about 5:30pm to do their business and looked at our tomato plants and found about 15 of these nasty fat green worms. I immediately went to my computer and found this site and see that I am not the only one to have the same problem. They blend in with the plant extremly well so they are hard to see, but hopefully we got them all for today. All the tops of our plants are gone and some of the tomatoes were eaten up. We also found some black catepillars on them also. Aside from picking them off, does anyone know of anything you can spray on your plants to keep them off. We had no problem with them last year. This year in our yard we are seeing snakes, huge spiders and now these bugs. Most be the summer of the insect and reptile. I don’t know. Any help from anyone???? Please post. Thanks!
Discovered this awful worm today. Only have 3 tomato plants and 2 of them are almost destroyed! Picked about 20 worms off and about 3/4s were big as my pointer finger. Mean suckers and hard to kill. How do I get rid of them other than picking them off?
E-yew — yucky — found them decimating my 7-ft tall moonflower vine — which is now stripped bare of leaves in the top two feet. Little terrorists!
I can’t pick them off — and they won’t shake off. Had a litle Bayer spray for rose and flowers, so sprayed what I had. Opened up Lowe’s this morning for some more spray — got Bayer for insects. It’s got to be a plague from the Bible! Ooooooooooooeeeeeeee-yuck!
Spray hasn’t killed them all yet, but I just found two more and sprayed them “dead on”. I may kill my flower, but I’d rather it be ME than them!
What do I do to the soil this fall to kill their habitat? Yucky!
Dudes, I keep these mangs for pets. Send them to me. Email me at twodsonegf@yahoo.com. Right now we have four. Leroy, baby Leroy, Gloria, and Carlos. They are awesome meongs. CHumon.
Found 2 so far in my sons garden, One on the bean plant, and one had eaten the top out of his hot cayenne o
Picked them off and squashed them. Gues I’ll have to spray with insectide.
Is this the year of the tomato worm?? Never had these before! I took some scissors and snipped them in 2 sections. Yes the blood was green but you’d be green too if you were full of leaves and they even destroyed the tomatoes by eating chunks out of them all. Do I have to go through this again next year or can I catch this and stop it this year???
After seeing these very disturbing worms on my tomato plant I never want to eat tomatoes again. I feel like things are crawling on me. They are the ugliest things I have ever seen. I am making my husband throw the whole plant away.
I found 8 worms after they had done considerable damage to a flowering vine in my yard. Did some research to get to know the enemy. Seems that the sphinx and hawk moth fly at night and lay eggs on the leaves of yummy plants. The eggs hatch in 5 days. The worms grow to finger length proportions and ‘wrath of God’ appetites within 3-4 weeks. Most sites recommend just hand picking and dumping in a bucket of water to kill them-I think kerosene is what they used in Somersby. The sites claim they don’t bite or sting but will spit yucky stuff at you. They are kind of pretty if you are just watching them-but they can really cling to a branch or leaf and yanking them off is just creepy. I enlisted my 4 yr old son’s help and he put them in a bug catcher to take to pre-school tomorrow. I’m not sure the teacher is going to appreciate this-but hey, it’s science right? The worms dig into the ground and turn into pupae-some sites say for 2-4 weeks, others say all winter. Rototilling the area might help if you are suffering an infestation. The moths emerge in the spring, mate, and then fly away to lay more eggs.
Our tomatoe plants are plagued this year by tomatoe horm worms. Funny thing is we have not seen many of the moths that lay the eggs. Their tenacity in clinging to their food source makes the chore of hand picking a hazzard to you and your clothing. I learned the hard way after having green blood spurt onto my neck and stain my linen blouse. Now I place a plastic bag from the supermarket on my hand and pry them loose (there is plenty of plastic to protect you from any spurting blood) and turn the bag inside out. I then crush the worm inside the bag by foot. Sweet revenge for destroying my tomatoe plants.
Ive been told that soap and water will kill them.
Thank goodness I found this site. I just found these horrible looking worms on my tomato plants today and had no idea what they were. These things are huge and creepy looking. Thanks everyone for the helpful info.
I was schooled this year on these ugly worms. First year of growing tomatos. I noticed some of the tomatos picked at an thought they were beetles then googled the areas tomato pests and saw these things next morning what do you know I found five of the ugly little suckers. I couldn’ t pick them off I had a neighbor do it he used a ruler and a coffee can. Then I sprayed an insecticide called Sevin on the entire crop no more bugs of anykind. Thank God! I know the the worm turns into the hummingbird moth but I’d rather have a real hummingbird then these things.
i have a black eyed susan vine that WON’T BLOOM! it was blooming when i bought it in early july but now…NOW BLOOMS. it’s huge and growing so much that i’ve given it several haircuts. i’m having a big deck party next weekend and want it blooming by next weekend. any suggestions. i’ve tried several approaches recommendated by my local garden center and none have worked. just gave it a shot of bloom booster this week and am now hoping for the best. PLEASE HELP
Tomato worms are the larvue stage of the Hawk Moth. Dipel dust found at Lowes or any garden center will get rid of them quick but must be applied as soon as the first evidence reveals their presence. Picking them off by hand is the next best way to rid them if you can see them.
A green caterpillar with dozens of little white babies on its back showed up near the top of one of my cherry tomato plants about 2 weeks ago. Fortunately, the plants had already produced about 10 lbs. of tomatoes and the beast didn’t cause me any grief.
I took a few photos of it, since it looked pretty cool. No horns like the one on this site. I don’t know if it is the kind to defoliate the tomato plant as it disappeared a few days later without doing any apparent damage.
I’d be happy to pass on photos to interested parties.
Actually, I superimposed the horn and the mouth of a picture I found of the hornworm. So it really doesn’t look exactly like that.
I’m in my 60’s and have had tomato plants most of my life. For the past couple of years I’ve been on the 3rd floor of an apartment complex. I came home from work this evening & noticed that my 2 tomato plants were missing ALL their leaves on 4 stems. I then spotted one of these worms. It’s incredible how well they blend in! I removed 7 of them with triple thickness paper towels. I then placed them into my garbage disposal – ran the water – turned on the switch – NO MUSS, NO FUSS!!! Never saw these things before in all my years of growing tomatoes. Any more in the future will meet the very same fate! Found your website after the funeral!!
Common Name: Tomato hornworm
Scientific Name: Manduca quinquemaculata (Haworth)
Order: Lepidoptera
Description: Caterpillars can reach 3 to 4 inches in length, are green with prominent diagonal white stripes along the sides of the body and a black-colored “horn” on the back end.
Brightest Blessings,
Well, I to noticed this plague as I went out to the garden. Well, me, and the kid notice this big worm looks a bit diffent though red point is more of a straight sharp point. I used two sticks to pull one off as it look poisonius. Threw it into the field thinking it was gone I was examining the others plants, and they were all filled with these. Wasn’t much I could do at this point as they had took bites out all tomotes that were left. It is now the next day, and my tomotoes plants are no more. The hungry monsters ate them to the ground tomotoes, and all.
Tonight I picked off 5 of these ugly things & gave them a gasoline bath which killed them. They are prehistoric eating machines & I did not appreciate their invading my tomato patch. I will check out my plants again tomorrow. I once saw one of these worms at a golf course – it was 5 inches in length and as big around as an adult person’s thumb! Ugly as sin, also.
Where do these creatures come from??? Are they in the plants when I buy them??