I woke up this morning to find my tomatoes decimated by these things! I have not had this problem before. What are these and how can I prevent them in the future. These things are huge! I doubt they were born yesterday so I don’t know how they found my plants which are in raised beds on my patio
Those look like hornworms. I only know because I’ve seen them at pet stores to feed reptiles. Hopefully someone has more info!
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They’re tobacco hornworms! If you let them be they turn into huge beautiful moths(hawk moths) but they’ll also eat a lot of your tomato plant leaves and can kill the plant if there are too many of them!
3 J'aime I’m sure you can probably control them with pesticides if you want or just pick them off the plants by hand. I’ve heard they don’t like marigolds so it may be worth planting some in your garden
2 J'aime My poor tomato plants are half bald after one night. I would consider letting them go elsewhere but I don’t know where they came from! They are so huge I don’t want them coming back.
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Caterpillars turn into moths or butterfly’s, which fly, so they can land on any plant anywhere to lay more eggs that develop into caterpillars. The cycle continues. I can’t have any more Coleus in my outside area because of a smaller variety of caterpillar. They taste like a yummy salad bar to them! All you can eat buffet! The eyes on this adult hornworm moth are stunning!
Try the marigolds ☺️
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