Attack of the Killer Tomato Worms

EEEuuuuu!
horn worm.jpg
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.

103 thoughts on “Attack of the Killer Tomato Worms

  1. I agree what is wrong with you people who think these things are beautiful! The destruction they are capable of is unbelievable. I agree this must be the year of the worm. We have been planting tomatoes for the past 14 years in our present location and my father and grandmother have planted for some 50 years plus before me. We have never had a problem with these ugly creatures.
    I am beginning to wonder if these creatures didn’t come from the bags of topsoil we purchased. I was not happy with the topsoil this year for it smelled bad and almost seemed like it had sand mixed in with it. Could the pupae have been in this soil? I would like to hear others thoughts on this.

  2. We are entirely organic. What, you’d rather have some heavy-metal or sulphur-based pesticide on your food than some local denizen that, while less than beautiful, will not hurt you in any way? He’s one of god’s…just like you! Pick him off with gloves, apologize, and squash him. He passes absolutely no diseases to you!

  3. Well my dad left his tomato plant with me this week to “plant sit.” As the days passed and I kept noticing leaves missing, I found one of these critters and thankfully found this site, after looking harder I got 4 off his plant and hope there are no more! I agree with the other post though, if you are going to grow your own tomatos dont ruin them with pesticides… just pick off the little critters and salvage what you can, takes more time but definatley worth it! thanks for all the posts.

  4. I, too, have these buggers this year. I found one today that was covered by small white things- looked like eggs. They were definitely on the outside, and I actually saw one as it appeared to be leaving the worm’s anus ( if that’s what it’s called in those creatures!) Now I’m wondering if they had been laid on the worm by another insect, perhaps that wasp that kills them. Any thoughts?????

  5. My husband picked 14 of these disgusting creatures off my plants last night. He stopped at 14 because he was tired of killing them. I probably have no more tomatoes as of this morning. If you see “small white things” on the worms, leave them alone as this is a good thing. Disgusting, yes, but a good thing in the world of nature. It is probably small braconid wasps. Larva that hatch from wasp eggs laid on the hornworm feed on the inside of the hornworm until the wasp is ready to pupate. The cocoons appear as white projections protruding from the hornworms body. If such projections are seen, leave the infected hornworms in the garden. The wasps will kill the hornworms when they emerge from the cocoons and will seek out other hornworms to parasitize.

  6. I too just found 2 on our patio plant last night, as the dog knocked one off of the plant. Really creepy looking. Since the plant looked so bad I clipped the entire thing off and let it drop into the flower garden below. No I am concerned that they will damage my flower garden. Any possibility that they eat anything other than vegetables?

  7. I too just found 2 on our patio plant last night, as the dog knocked one off of the plant. Really creepy looking. Since the plant looked so bad I clipped the entire thing off and let it drop into the flower garden below. Now I am concerned that they will damage my flower garden. Any possibility that they eat anything other than vegetables?

  8. Stop!!!! all you have to do is pick the branch they are on off and toss them they make a cacoon and turn into a moth that flys and looks almost like a hummingbird… Yest they can be very hungry but dont kill then you will love to see them fly around…I killed them my myself until I read a article about them. If you want to find out for your self, get a big pickle jar and get 1 of the worms and put some tomatoe limbs in the jar (the small limbs) poke holes in the top of the jar lid and wait a few weeks, they will spin a cacoon and then oout will pop a very beautiful moth leave it in the jar until the wings dry out and release it..I swore they were humming birds until I read the article and now know people who pick them and do as I explained. You will be totally amazed, they won’t bit you and yes they look wicked but grab them and or cut off the branch they are on and throw them alittle ways from your plant they won’t return they will go thru there cycle of being a beautiful moth/bird like creature. they fly exactly like humming birds, up and down, forward and backwards and VERY FAST….you can almost always find them at the TOP of your tomatoe plants where the limbs are small and tender just look slowly and you will see them… hope this opens a new door for you on this amazing worm…take care!!!! Dave in Kansas

  9. All this about turning into a beautiful hummingbird is great but my tomatoes have been destroyed before I could eat any. They not only eat the leaves and stem but also the tomatoes, all of them. Do they also lay eggs on my lawn and eat its roots? Do they multiply extremely the next year if not destroyed? I love nature but this is too much. Help!

  10. I have found a way to deter these creatures! Mix Ivory liquid soap with water in a spray bottle and spray your plants, it’s natural and the worms don’t like it!! Just wash your tomaotes before eating them. Do this often and it will keep them at bay… they come back but keep spraying and you can save your plants and stems.

  11. i found 3 of these big creeps on my plants last-nite. i had to peel them off then i stomped on ’em. all three had the white fuzz balls mentioned above but i didn’t want to leave it there just to eat more of my tomato plants so i’ll hunt more tonight. they look neat but i would rather have big healthy tomatoes then neat lookin’ worms.

  12. The other days my wife showed me a horned tomato worm she had picked off one of our plants. It was covered with what looked like grains of white rice. Are these wasp larvae ?
    I have heard that if you wrap a strip of cardboard with aluminum foil and circle a new plant with it, the worm can’t get passed it. I have not personally triedit-will do next year.

  13. I found this crazy, colorfully-horned, green, huge worm in my yard. I have seen plain tomato worms before, but this is very strange looking. The horns are different colors, yellow, blue, and orange with smaller pickley horns sticking out of them. Does anyone know what this worm is called?

  14. We find several of these worms on our plants daily. We have eight plants and we pick between 3 and 8 worms a night. We were wondering where in the world these came from. We did not have a garden last year as it was our furlow year. We have several different varieties of tomatoes so, the worm has a choice of dinning for the evenning. Now we get rid of them by cutting the stem off and burning it. I will be trying the pickle jar the next time we have to pick. I would like to see the butterfly/moth that God has created through this little worm.

  15. I am so disgusted!!!! These worms are in my garden too!!! I can’t even pick my tomatoes without coming eye to eye with one of these nasty things. Nothing cute, neat, interesting about them. They are just disgusting. I found one the size of my thumb from the tip to the wrist today. AND AS FAT!!! Too bad you can’t eat these things. They would make good eatin’!!! Or maybe you can, but I am not interested. All I know is I want them gone. I don’t want to have to fork them. I just want a spray to spray directly on them and see them wriggle and die. I tried powder, but that didn’t work. Ugh….even after my garden is dead for the season, I am still always going to think of those fat, nasty things being in my backyard. I will have to have my husband pull the dead plants cause I’m not touching them.

  16. I have been gardening for years and never before had a problem with these worms. I just clipped four of them(all with white eggs all over them)off of my tomato plants and disposed of them. I will continue to garden, but I don’t think I have ever been so grossed out in my life. Thanks for the Ivory soap tip, I will try that…anything almost to make them go away!!!

  17. I have to say that I have never experienced my skin crawling until I pulled one of these worms off my tomato plant! Yuck! My son was quite inquisitive… so, this worm is in a jar in front of me. I do NOT want any more of these in my garden. From the research I just did 1) the eggs are laid by a type of moth 2) they grow and pupate through eating leaves 3) they will eventually grow into a moth (after they eat all your veges)! BUT, does anyone know an organically friendly way to get rid of these worms? I have noticed people mentioning chemicals; is there any other suggestions?

  18. I know its nasty stuff, but Ortho Sevin is undoubtedly the best insecticide for preventative maintenance on fruits and vegetables. We get hit with Japanese beetles early in the summer on our grapes, raspberries, and green beans, and I use the garden hose bottle of Sevin because you can spray a large area quickly and pretty accurately as long as you have little or no wind. apply this stuff to your tomatoes mid-august and you won’t see any T-worms. Just be sure to wash your hands after contact, and the tomatoes before use. Sevin does tend to wash off in the rain so you may need to re-apply after such.

  19. I’m amazed at how many people have had trouble with these worms this summer, often for the first time. Actually Sevin IS the best stuff to use, and I should have remembered that because it was recommended to me by the New York State Botonist when I worked at the State Museum. My rugs were infested with fleas from my outdoor cat, and he suggested dusting the rugs with Sevin and putting newspapers down all over and keeping the cat in another room for 24 hours. And then vacuuming it all up and do it again a week later. It worked. Apparently Sevin is a powerful agent but has a very short active life. And it does wash off easily, such as outdoors by the rain. You have to apply it on your garden every once in a while and make sure you wash the produce before eating. I know we all like to do things without pesticides, but if you’re going to have to use one, Sevin is the one. And this is my weblog, and I’m not being paid by Sevin to say this. I’m just reporting what I was told by a practical professional naturalist. I’m sorry I didn’t remember that last year when my tomatoes were demolished by that green beastie.

  20. It has been seveal years since we’ve had a problem with tomato worms here in Northern California. This year has been a nightmare! We found one that is about 2 1/2″ long, definitely a mega beast. Although the kids have had much fun hunting them, Seven does work great!!

  21. Be sure to add a tablespoon or so of any veg. oil in the spray bottle with the Ivory soap and water and that way the soapy stuff will stick to your plants and will work for a longer time and won’t drip off with the morning dew or evening moistness in the air.

  22. After weeks of removing them from our tomatoes, some days over 30, in various sizes, both tomato and tobacco, to be sqwished; their ‘green blood’ staining the driveway….
    I am sat here at dusk watching my moonfowers open, noticing 3 large moths fluttering beautifully around the vine visiting each flower. Yes, something so very ugly and distructive does turn in to something quite beautiful, art in motion….

  23. I WENT OUT TO MY GARDEN TONIGHT TO PICK TOMATOES AND NOTICED A TURD PERCHED ON THE TOMATO CAGE. IT DIDN’T LOOK LIKE A BIRD AND TOO SMALL FOR A SQUIRREL. THE GROUND WAS COVERED WITH TURDS AND SOME OF MY TOMATOES WERE PILED WITH THEM…GROSS!!! WHEN MY HUSBAND CAME HOME HE CAME OUT TO THE GARDEN AND I ASKED HIM IF HE KNEW WHAT IT WAS CAUSE IT WAS EATING THE HECK OUT OF MY TOMATOES. HE DIDN’T KNOW…AND THEN I SAW IT, THE BIGGEST, UGLIEST, GREEN GIANT TRYING TO HIDE BEHIND A TOMATO. I PICKED UP THE BRANCH HE WAS CLINGING TO AND I TOLD MY HUSBAND TO GET HIM OFF. HE WENT TO THE GARAGE FOR A PAIR OF GLOVES BECAUSE A COUPLE DAYS AGO WE PICKED SOME OTHER KIND OF WORM OFF OUR DILL..THEY WERE A GOOD SIZE TOO BUT MAN DID THEY STINK..STILL DON’T KNOW WHAT THEY WERE. ANYWAY, AS MY HUSBAND WAS GETTING HIS GLOVES I WAS YELLING AT HIM FROM THE GARDEN AS I SAW ANOTHER WORM AND ANOTHER ONE. WHILE I WAS YELLING I SWEAR, THE WORM ON THE BRANCH I WAS HOLDING UP WAS LISTENING TO ME. THE MORE I TALKED THE MORE HE SAT UP, I WAS GETTING A LITTLE NERVOUS AS I THOUGHT MAYBE IT WOULD JUMP AT ME. MY HUSBAND PICKED THEM OFF THE PLANTS AND THREW THEM AGAINST A TREE….THEY’RE DEAD YOU COULD TELL BY THE NOISE THEY MADE WHEN THEY MADE CONTACT WITH THE TREE…NOTHING COULD LIVE THROUGH THAT. AND I’M WITH THE REST OF SOME OF YOU..THAT WAS 5 HOURS AGO AND MY SKIN IS STILL CRAWLING AND ITCHING.

  24. hey everyone !
    i found a tomato worm in the middle of the road today and i saved its life ! then i realized it was a tomatoe horn worm when i got home. im not going to kill it becuase it is my favorite friend. his name is Tom Ado. hes so cute and we gave him tomato leaves. im going to the fair today and im bringing it with me so show some friends. he’s the best and he’s going to be my ride buddy. = ) im so happy i found Tom. he almost died. well i thought he did but then when i picked him up he was alive . YAY !! He pooped in my cup though. silly little Tom. B.R.

  25. I have not seen these disgusting creatures in YEARS (very thankfully) until this year. I have given up after plucking without count and presented the worms with my once beautiful tomatoes. The kids want to grow one into a moth…but doesn’t the moth lay the eggs that grow into the wormzillas? I’m really not that interested in seeing a pretty moth that will propagate a voracious parasite. I have not seen any postings on how to prevent them for next year other than tilling. I notice from other postings that hornworms are nightshade eaters, should I be checking my eggplants?

  26. My daughter found this site after I complained to her about the long green worm on my tomatoes. Thanks for the best laugh I’ve had in a long time. I loved all the techniques for killing them. I gave up today, after all the damage, the cut the plant down to the stem. I read an article saying Bt, bacillus thuringiensis, is a caterpillar killer, and the best way to take care of the problem. I, too, have never seen these hornworms. So, no tomatoes this year.

  27. Where do these Nasty Tomato Worms come from They have destroyed my tomato plants. I just wish i knew where they come from and how to stop them from attackin my plants

  28. Yep, same situation as a lot of people. My parents have been planting tomato’s in the garden in their home for 15+ years, never saw these bugs, never had a problem.
    They bought these plants from Home Depot, and thats the first year they bought from them. So maybe there’s some coincidence there?

  29. As a little girl growing up in Michigan, I remember my dad finding these gross, nightmarish ‘creatures’ on his tomato plants. Now 20+ years later, living in Arizona, my worst fears have come back! We found TWO of them in a bush in our yard last night! (and we don’t even have any tomato plants) Freakin freaks of nature!

  30. The amount of plant, leaf and tomato this worm can eat in one day is amazing.
    I cannot stomach killing it by squashing or picking it off. So I hold an open zip-lock bag below the leaf or tomato it’s working on and with scissors, I clip it off and it drops into bag. Zip it up. Then into garbage bin. No muss;no fuss
    I am gonna try the Ivory soap,water and veg.oil mix and i’ll post how it works for me.

  31. I noticed these worms a couple days ago–just two of them and not really THAT big yet. So I grabbed garden gloves, picked them off and threw them over a hill. I thought throwing them into the pond would be cruel. Then today I come out to check the tomato plants and there are two more FAT, BIG worms. I thought the two little suckers I threw over the hill came back! I took those 2 fatties and threw them into the wheelbarro full of water because I was too creeped out to walk all the way down to the pond with these in my hands–even with the gloves on. Came back two hours later and started looking really hard and found 2 more. They’re nasty, nasty, nasty and they creep me out. But reading all 80+ of these posts has really made me crack up and actually laugh out loud several times. I’m glad I’m not the only one freaked out by these things. I, too think it’s something to do with where the plants come from. Maybe wherever they kept them till being shipped was infested with those moths. Who knows. I grew several plants myself, and have 2 I bought at Lowe’s. The Lowe’s plants are the ones with the worms.
    Anyway, I’m going to Lowe’s tonight and buying Sevin.

  32. Here in East Tennessee I have found these ugly worms tonight. I have grown tomatos for years and never have I seen these ugly, creepy eating worms. So tonight I pulled the darn things off, placing them very carfully in a freezer bag and poured cloro bleach into the bag. They swam fought each other because there were about a dozen in the bag. So my wife came to the computer found all these comments and had some good laughs and tommorrow we will be spraying our vines with the ivory soap mix and see if it works. Thanks for the good laughs and also advice.

  33. Hmmm, I already knew these little $41%^*&* could be trouble, but last year I only found one and had far more damage from sun scald.
    I was looking around the internet to find out more about the tomato horn worm, and possible treatments, when I stumbled across this site. I was prompted to want to learn more tonight, after discovering a full grown adult had eaten 2/3’s of my once beautiful red bell pepper plant. Of course it ate top down, so sun scald is guaranteed on the 4 or 5 peppers currently on the plant, unless I cut them soon.
    I had discovered another earlier this same evening inside of a Brandywine tomato. I knew there was one in the plant by the tell tale turd trail (black not green), but couldn’t find it after about 15 minutes last night. Tonight I noticed discoloration on a baby Brandywine, and sure enough, there was a hole in the top. This little bugger bored in and was eating the tomato inside out. No wonder I couldn’t find him in the leaves!
    The super huge fully adult that pillaged my bountiful Home depot bought pepper, accomplished this in less than a day. I look at my garden EVERY night.
    There may be something to starting from seed, rather than buying from home depot. That is how I had to do things this year, when last year I was about 50/50 store bought and seed. Last year I found only one and had no problems after that. This year I have found somewhere around 15 so far, some the fully blown hardened horn behemoths.
    By the way, they squirt juice when you snip the horn off. I think they may have a requirement of the horn remaining attached to their bodies for them to live. Not the typical dark green blood composed of your tomatos lifeblood, but a clearish liquid.

  34. Tiny Gladiators (Sphinx 5-maculata, to be precise). I just spent the better part of an hour capturing the viscious little SOBs in the garden. I’m surprised that no one has talked about their violent nature. Put them together in a cage, step back and enjoy the show.
    I’m glad its Friday. My plan is to tie little insects onto their backs and let them fight to the death in front of the neighborhood kids.
    Enjoy

  35. I picked off 4 of them Today. As soon as the sun set, they all came to the top branches and were easier to spot. Their color is a couple of shades lighter than the plants, which made them easy to see after sunset. Non of them were carrying wasp eggs. They seem to like the grape tomatoe plants more than the other varietys I have growing. I haven’t seen any on the pepper plants ( YET ).

  36. This is the second year in a row that we’ve had these big monster worms. Yesterday, I found two and put them in a tupperware container for my husband to deal with – I can’t stomach killing them myself! But my 3-year old son found the container first and now we have them as pets. (He was SO excited!) It’s half interesting and half disgusting to have them in the house. My son can’t wait until they turn into moths. I’m not sure we’ll keep them for more than a few days – but for now, I’ve secretly named them Mr. & Mrs. Evil. My son just informed me, however, that their real names are “Horny Horny” and “Horny Caterpillar Caterpillar”. Oh, the joys of motherhood! No one told me it would be like this.

  37. I grew all my tomatoes from seed this year, and still have these worms, so I don’t think they have to be imported. They probably flew in from a neighbors yard. I don’t know at this point because I don’t know anyone nearby that grows vegetables. One other thing I didn’t see mentioned is if you try to pry them off, they make this little clicking sound, which is very creepy. My method of attack now is to cut them in half with some garden scissors. It’s a little gross, but kills and removes at the same time. You get used to the gore after awhile. I’m not interested in seeing the beautiful moth, since it will just re-infect the next year if I allow it to live.

  38. This is the first year I’ve found them, the last four years we had other problems, like blossom end rot-never got big enough for them to eat I guess.
    I found two, a little one which I flung across the yard and a big juicy one. I couldn’t pull him off, too strong so I cut off the vine and stuck the whole thing it in a plastic container with a green tomato I pulled off earlier because all the tomatoes were getting these little knicks in them. Now that I think about it, the knicks are probably from the birds pecking them off. I can’t bear to kill it, it’s too gross. Its markings are so funky, and it’s got a little sharp red spine on its butt. It hasn’t bit me yet. I may bring it to my sister and she’ll put it on the grill, she says they burst. I really don’t want to cook anything on a grill that has tomato worm insides all over it. We have a bottle of insecticidal soap that I’ll try.
    I’m actually more concerned about the infestation of mice that we have, which the stupid cats won’t even try to catch.

  39. I found a satisfying way to deal with them. I have a huge ant hill (with huge ants) on the outskirts of my garden. I dig a 6 ich deep hole in the hill and just plop the worms in. In a few seconds the worms are covered with hundreds of ants, writhing in pain as they get bitten over and over and over for 15 or 20 minutes until they are dead. Sweet revenge for what has been done to my Lemon Boy Tomato plants!

  40. Yikes! I had never seen anyworm this huge! It has decimated my Angel Trumpet tree top completely overnight! I checked the tree and there was nothing on it. At noon I went out and looked at it again, and VOILA! There it was! completely comouflaged as a branch! I knocked it in to a cup and in the Lake it went for duck food or fish food , so it likes poisonous leaves to.

  41. I did a google search and found this site. I did another and found some tips on how to get rid of the little buggers so to speak……organically. I thought I would share with you all. I found two tiny caterpillars at the bottom of my plant today. They were in a circle shape the size of a small button ewwwwww!

    Tips:

    3) Soap Spray
    Spray the undersides of the leaves with a soap mixture to kill the eggs at the first sign of seeing the moths. A hard spray of water will also help if your plants are strong enough. Wiping the eggs off with alcohol on a q-tip is effective.
    4) Bt
    Use as directed on label.
    5) Companion Planting
    Plant marigolds as they may be a deterrant. Marigolds Stink to a lot of different bugs.

    6) Suppossedlly the worms will “glow” at night if you go out with a flashlight. That makes it easier to pick them off the plant.

  42. If you see white dots on top of them, don’t kill the worm. These are a parasite wasp that is killing the worm. After they kill the worm the wasps will patrol the garden for more worms.

  43. ANY POISON ON YOUR PLANT WILL MEAN POISON IN YOUR TOMATOES. Stay organic. I’m squeemish, but I pick tomato hornworms off my plants. Wish I had a chicken to feed them to.

  44. These things ARE gross, but interesting. I pick them off and feed them to my chickens. They love them. People tell me that you can fry them just like fried green tomatoes, and that they taste just like fried green tomatoes. I am not brave enough (or desperate for food enough) to try that, but it makes sense since you are what you eat. Every now and then one of my kids will keep one in a jar to watch it hatch into a very big and beautiful butterfly that resembles a hummingbird, but I still prefer to think of them as free chicken feed.

  45. Like everyone, I checked my two tomato plants and found entire branches ravaged. Then I saw it. I was startled at first by the size of it, then I was in awe as I watched it nibble on the leaves. I cut the branch off and put it in a bowl to show my 4 year old daughter. She was amazed by it, and even petted it! (my daughter likes to hold earthworms and pillbugs). I inspected the plant and found five more, which we collected and put in an old aquarium. I am totally fascinated by these eating machines, and we have been watching them all day. I’ve clipped off two 8 inch sucker branches to feed them, and they’ve cleared the entire things over the course of 6 hours. I’m tempted to set up a time lapse camera to show the devestation they can do.

    Anyhow, I think I’m getting more enjoyment out of them than I am the 6 tomatos ripening on the vine! My wife is disgusted, though.

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