Tomato Horn Worms
Tomato Hornworms are the larva of a huge moth called five-spotted hawkmoth. Approximate size of the moth is around the size of a hummingbird so you can’t miss them. The hawkmoth is gray-brown with yellow spots on the sides of their body.
Tomato Hornworm-(left) Colorado State University, Five-spotted hawkmoth (right)-Floridagardening.com
The hornworm caterpillars are pretty small at first and hard to see because of their pale green color, but they become huge – 3 1/2 to 4 inches (7-10cm) in 3-4 weeks. You can’t miss them then! They are green-brown colour with v-shaped markings on the body and unmistakable ‘horns’. Hornworm eggs are green and are laid on the underside of leaves.
Hornworm Pupa (cocoon), Hornworm Egg (right)-Colorado State University
Hornworm Lifecycle
The five-spotted hawkmoths lay their eggs as soon as they mate after hatching. They appear in late June to August. Full grown larva (3-4 weeks feeding) wander around the garden digging themselves in where they form a pupa (brown and about 3cm long) that overwinters and hatches in the spring.
Hornworm Damage-Floridagardening.com
Hornworm Damage
Tomato Hornworms feed on leaves and stems of tomato plants. Ocassionally they will also eat the fruits later in the summer months. They also feed on peppers, eggplant and potatoes. They can defoliate a plant in just a few days. There can be two generations of tomato hornworms every year. A bunch of them can spell disaster in your garden!
How To Control Tomato Hornworms
- Use a liquid Bt spray like Green Step™ Caterpillar Control
Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) does not harm animals, people or the environment. It paralyzes the horn worms and they die from starvation. Spray the top and bottom of the tomato plant leaves. Repeat every 5 to 7 days until you don’t see anymore worms. Bt is safe to use right up to the time of picking your tomatoes. - Another all-natural environmentally friendly pesticide that is safe for use around kids and pets is Plant Guardian™ Houseplant Insecticidal Soap
Spraying the undersides of the leaves with an insecticidal soap mixture kills 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 also effective. - Introduce Parasitic Wasps into your garden
Parasitc Wasps (Braconid and Trichogramma) lay their eggs on the larva. If you see little white things on the worm don’t kill the worm, place it in a jar with a fresh leaf and keep feeding it until the wasps do their job. These are the cocoons of the wasp and their larva feed inside the host and will kill it. This guy below has just met his maker!
Hornworm with parasite eggs (left)-Joe Boggs, Braconid Wasp (right)-Perdue University - Hand Pick
Tomato Hornworms are so big you cannot miss these guys. If you don’t want to touch them I recommend cutting them in half with the kitchen scissors. In the fall when you turn your garden pick out any pupae (cocoons) you might find and destroy them. - Companion Planting
Plant marigolds as a deterrent around or between your tomatoes. Marigolds stink to a lot of different bugs and they avoid them.
August 6th, 2006 at 7:45 pm
Hi Cahri,
We found a few of them on our half-dead tomato plants. One was dead but another, bigger one was thriving so I decided to keep him and watch his growth cycle. My mom is grossed out by him but I think all animals, especially bugs, are fascinating. I’ve hand raised caterpillers, mostly the black fuzzy ones found everywhere, so do enjoy having them around.
I named him Henry and he’s about four inches long. After I made a new home for him out of spacious tupperware and mesh netting, I lined it with fresh tomato plant leaves and spritzed some water on them to add moisture. For the first day, Henry was pretty happy with munching away on the leaves. I later discovered his smaller (only about two centimeteres) cousin living in their by accident. I must have picked him up without knowing it.
Two questions:
1. Huebert (the smaller of the two) is so small that I didn’t think he was the same species. Up close he has the same features as Henry but he’s so small by comparison…Is he some sort of imitation species? Should I separate the two of them?
2. Henry has been fussy the last few hours. I put in fresh leaves and made sure he was comfortable but he’s moving a lot (whereas normally he’s remain comletely still) and acting agitated. I know he’s just a bug but I was wondering if this is a pre metomorphosis type of behaviour.
Thanks for your time…:)
August 6th, 2006 at 11:07 am
Hi can I feed the tomato worms to my chickens? They go nuts for them. Nust be a delicasy for them. Will the worms hurt them or affect the eggs?
August 3rd, 2006 at 7:37 pm
I just read about the wasp larvae that adhere to the hornworms. Just this morning our son called to say that his tomato plants are infestsed with them and he found one with small white ‘eggs’ (?) on it. He said they were probably the worm’s eggs. I agreed. Boy, was I wrong. I’ll call him in the morning to let him know he should not kill these that have larvae on them! Thank you so much for a terrific web site.
Donna from Candia, NH
August 3rd, 2006 at 2:43 pm
I just read about cutworms and they suggested putting a plastic tube around the base of the plant after planting to avoid them from crawling up the plant in the early stages… or pouring molasses on the base of the plant so they can’t crawl up (replenishing after the rain). Do you think this would work with the tomato worm?
August 3rd, 2006 at 6:35 am
I have the same problem as Joanne with the hanging tomato plant. The stem is quite knarled and I have pulled 9 tomato worms off of this one plant, which is on my 2nd floor deck, in the past 2 days. Where do these creatures come from?
Interestingly enough, none of the plants in my garden (new plot this year) have these beasts.
August 1st, 2006 at 10:22 am
I have heard that horn worms bite. Is this true? Thanks
July 30th, 2006 at 10:48 am
We just found some tomato worms on our tomato plant that we planted and is hanging on our porch. We destroyed 2 so far. But I have a question. There seems to be like bumps all over the stem of the plant, are these eggs?
How can we get rid of these critters?
July 26th, 2006 at 7:37 pm
Thank you.
July 26th, 2006 at 6:35 pm
Not very long
July 26th, 2006 at 5:47 pm
Hi – I could not see where my comment was accepted so am redoing. Found some tomatoe worms with the white larve which we removed but came in to find out what it might be and found your GREAT site. Because of the damage the tomatoe worm can do in such a short period of time can you tell me how long it takes the wasp larve to kill the tomatoe worm? Thank you.
July 23rd, 2006 at 12:39 pm
thank-you for your site.i enjoyed.
July 21st, 2006 at 4:34 pm
Will soap work after worms have hatched to eliminate them? And, do you have a picture of the larve in the soil?
July 16th, 2006 at 4:54 pm
I found a huge worm on my Virginia Creeper yesterday which looks just like a tomatoe worm, but is brown and it’s diagonal stripes are white…It lacks the “horn”, but has one eye in the middle of it’s head! My Va Creeper is looking sickly, but don’t know if it’s the worm or high heat we’ve had this week. No one I’ve shown it to has ever seen anything like it and I’ve been unable to find a picture on the net. I want to save my creeper! Any ideas?!
July 16th, 2006 at 12:18 am
Howdy! I just pulled two 3 inch horn worms off my maters today! Holy moly, they had already eaten an entire branch worth of leaves! I got lucky and started looking right at dusk, and I guess that’s when they come out from inside the plant and are easier to find.
BUT! I did alot of looking on-line and found that a guy tried using a black light to find them at night.
Well dam he’s right! Just like scorpians they glow bright green under ultra-violet light. You want to get all yer worms off yer plants?
I bought an 18 inch neon light style lamp, and a 100 ft extension cord. It used it at 1am, and found that while my other tamotos were horn free, my banana pepper plant had a small one munching on the underside of one leaf.
Thanks for the site, and thanks for the info. I’m going to keep a few worms in an aquarium turned sideways with a screen top, thats now a screen sdie. I’m going to use the cuttings from my plants to feed him. One question:
Should I put the cage out in my car hole during winter so the ground/worm can freeze? Or will it be okay in a cool dark place in my basement?
July 4th, 2006 at 4:56 pm
I have just sprayed our tomato plants with Dawn dish soap with bleach.
Will that harm my tomato plants? I have been killing many tomato hornworms from my garden of tomato plants. Interestingly, I sprayed the plants this morning and no signs of the worms now in the evening of the day….would like your comments..
br
July 4th, 2006 at 4:42 pm
we planted out first garden and it was doing pretty well besides the grass growing up around it . We were gone for a few days and came home to find the leaves off most of our tomato and pepper plants because of these tomatoworms. They were huge. Several of the vegetables were ruined too. We killed a bunch of them but I am wondering if the plants will come back and how to get rid of future worms? I have sprayed with garden bug control substance but is that enough.
June 6th, 2006 at 6:22 am
How long do tomato worms live?
June 6th, 2006 at 6:10 am
My granddaughter is fascinated with the tomato worm and plays with them everyday. Is there any danger in playing with the worms. Do they carry any diseases or cause any skin reactions in humans.
June 1st, 2006 at 7:14 pm
okay my daughter is keeping a tomato hornworm and wants to know will it die without any water or is it okay.
May 26th, 2006 at 4:11 pm
Hi Everyone,
Here is it May 26, 2006 and there are alredy signs of the worms (worm droppings) on my plants. I have only found somthing that looks like a small inch worm. Is this a young “tomato worm”? What can I do to prevent them from infesting my plants other than spraying pesticide? I’d rather keep my garden as organic as I can.
Thanks!
September 27th, 2005 at 9:21 pm
Thank you for your wonderful advice. We have plier picked 20 worms from 6 tomato plants and one pepper plant. I was surprised to hear of so many cases. Misery loves company!! I am happy to say we are the proud owners of two worms with wasp eggs!! This should be interesting!
September 20th, 2005 at 7:15 pm
This sounds more like a parsleyworm…..they are also big and look sorta like hornworms. If so, it will pupate on the stems and not on the ground like hornworms do.
Regards
Cahri
September 19th, 2005 at 5:01 pm
I found 6 tomato hornworms on our serrano chili pepper plant! They wouldn’t eat tomato or melon seedlings, but they would eat cilantro (aka, chinese parsley).
These worms are about 2 1/2 inches long. Any idea how long they take to pupate? I’m still searching the web.
September 17th, 2005 at 8:05 pm
There are also other types of hormworms, like the tobacco hornworm. Each is specific to the type of plant they eat. As far as I know they will eat a multitude of veggie leaves, potatoes I’m not sure of.
Regards
Cahri
September 17th, 2005 at 7:30 pm
Reptile owners pay big bucks for these guys to feed to their insect eating herps. Only bad part I understand is that the tomatos are very bad for the reptiles, so the worms must be fed something else before feeding to the reptiles. Offer them to your friends with lizards! You may make a few dollars!
September 15th, 2005 at 5:30 pm
May
I have never seen them try to get into homes, are you sure this is not a butterfly caterpillar?
Regards
Cahri
September 15th, 2005 at 5:23 pm
Keep them if you want, they don’t eat each other but they will eat any and all tomato plants. If you love your tomatoes, get rid of them.
Regards
Cahri
September 15th, 2005 at 4:37 pm
i have these green worms in my garden, they are about 1-2 inches long and are as thick as a thumb. but we have found about eight of them, some are dead and others are trying to get into the house, we have found two on the porch.
they have a horn on the back end and the face is white with what look like to clippers or snappers.
what the heck are they and how do we get rid of them. will they hurt the grass.
September 15th, 2005 at 4:23 pm
i just found ten tomato horn worms wat shouls i keep them in and will they only eat tomato’s and tomato leaves. also there is a huge one and a tiny one ……..do u know if the big one will eat the little one. thanks!
September 13th, 2005 at 5:24 pm
No problem.
You could try chop sticks LOL
Regards
Cahri
September 13th, 2005 at 2:29 pm
Thanks for all the info….we raise tomatoes to sell and are those tomatoeworns doing a job on our plants…..itis frighting to take them off the plants they are so big and wiggle when you pullon them….but they have to go!!!!or the plants will be gone!!! thanks again
September 12th, 2005 at 3:37 pm
You’re very welcome. thank you
Regards
Cahri
September 12th, 2005 at 12:38 pm
For the first time in the 25 years that I have been gardening I have tomato worms. Your site was so enlightening thank you. We thought the white eggs were babies of the warm and have been killing them. Boy did we do wrong.
Thanks for educating a city girl
September 8th, 2005 at 1:54 pm
my kids just tried this year to keep tomato worms as pets but found that they need soil to dig into once they get old enough so please if you keep them as pets or a science project for you kids put them in thier container with a few inches of soil, also for water you can put a large bottle cao with water and a cotton ball in it, like for crickets.
September 4th, 2005 at 4:22 pm
Depends on how far along the larvae were. I’d say probably not.
Regards
Cahri
September 4th, 2005 at 3:13 pm
My son found a hornworm and there was infested with wasp eggs and he took them all off is there any chance it will survive?
September 4th, 2005 at 9:55 am
Melissa, I don’t think that is a hornworm. Sounds more like a caterpiller that will become a butterfly.
Regards
Cahri
September 3rd, 2005 at 12:42 pm
This is probebly a silly question. My son found a tomato worm in our lawn and wants to keep it. Funny thing is we have no tomatos. What can I feed the thing?
September 3rd, 2005 at 8:10 am
No they turn into hawkmoths….pictured above.
Regards
Cahri
September 3rd, 2005 at 6:45 am
my kids have caught a tomatoe worm and they want to know if it will turn into a butter fly or something…
September 2nd, 2005 at 3:49 pm
Don’t take them off, they are eggs (see above). They, when hatched, will eat the hornworms so you definately have a friend in your garden. Congratulations!
Regards
Cahri
September 2nd, 2005 at 12:59 pm
I have a tomato worm that has white spots on it. Are they safe? Do I need to take them off?
Thanks,
Connor
August 30th, 2005 at 10:23 pm
Good question, however I have no idea. Your daughter could mist the leaves every few days just to make sure. It is quite possible they get their moisture from the leaves. Good science project for her
Regards
Cahri
August 30th, 2005 at 2:19 pm
Hi!
My daughter wants to keep one and were wondering if it needs water or does it get it’s water from the leaves and stems of the tomato plant?
August 23rd, 2005 at 9:14 am
Tomato leaves would be fine. He could plant his own tomato and keep it in a glass container with a screen lid. That way he could observe the lifecycle of them. It will be interesting for him. Have fun!
Regards
Cahri
August 22nd, 2005 at 9:59 pm
My child just collected six tomato worms and would like to keep them as pets. What can i feed them? I don’t want to keep giving them my tomato plants or leaves.
Thanks,
August 18th, 2005 at 8:51 pm
No, tomato horn worms are not poisonous, if he wants to keep it, that would be fine. Just don’t let him near your precious tomatoes. He can feed them leaves and that will be fine. He has just made himself a science project
Regards
Cahri
August 18th, 2005 at 8:19 pm
I have a question, Are tomato horn worms poisonous? My son wants to keep one but I know nothing about them.
August 2nd, 2005 at 5:43 pm
I have heard that this works, however I have never tried it. It can’t hurt to try, but Just dust it lightly so you don’t block the breathing pores of the plant. If it works, let us know
Regards
Cahri
August 2nd, 2005 at 3:43 pm
I was told to sprinkle flour on the tomato plants when we first see the hornworms, they will ingest and die..is this true and will the flour harm the new flowers on the plant?
Tham\nk you Ida Vacca