Tomato Hornworm

The larva of this moth is 3 to 4 inches long and is green with seven or eight white stripes and a black horn protruding from the end of their body.

The adult moth is brownish with a 4-5 inch wingspan and she lays her greenish yellow eggs on the underside of tomato leaves. Two generations a year can be expected and you’ll see them munching on tomatoes, peppers, potatoes and eggplant for the most part.

You’ll know you have this pest because leaves on your plants will suddenly start to disappear. If you are very quiet you can actually hear the caterpillar munching away.

While there are sprays registered for this problem, the far easier solution is to examine your plant and hand-pick off the pests. There are usually only one or two caterpillars doing all the damage so spraying to kill one or two pests is overkill. Drop the caterpillars into a can of soapy water or slightly bury them and then stomp the grave.

There are insect predators that parasitize the tomato hornworm and these include both braconid wasps and trichogramma wasps. Both will lay eggs on the pest and if you see white cocoons on the back of the pest you’ve captured, you might want to leave it alone so the predators can hatch out and further control your garden (pick a few leaves for it to feed on and put is somewhere away from your plants).

Tomato Growing Secrets

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