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.
July 6th, 2009 at 10:53 am
I ve just discovered Those tomato worms and They’ve eaten three of my seven tomato plants. I’d already “companion” planted carrots within 6-9 inches of the tomatoes and marigolds at either end of the rows. I’m thinking it’s NOT working so well. Any other organic suggestions???
July 1st, 2009 at 6:38 pm
To the person who says “horned worms help to “prune” the tomato plant and keep them from getting too leggy or consumed in Plant production” I say…ARE YOU CRAZY?!? I have beautiful 5 foot tall tomato plants that as of last week are almost destroyed due to the lovely horn worm. So you go ahead and keep up your bed and breakfast for bugs and I’ll send them your way. I will be happily trying some of the above mentioned remedies so my family can have a chance to eat the tomatos that we have so carefully tended to over the last few months.
June 30th, 2009 at 9:14 pm
For all of you folks who have to kill insects… remember that they have been placed here for a purpose. I have found and my grandfather before me told me that horned worms help to “prune” the tomato plant and keep them from getting too leggy or consumed in Plant production. In fact a good gardener will prune out some of the tomato plant growth to help grow the tomatoes. What I usually do is relocate the horned worms to various plants and let them have at it. Ok, ok if they get a bit carried away, I have removed a few but we always look forward to seeing them in the garden and even the moths!!
PS to the guy who lives in Florida – if you can’t stand the heat in the kitchen, get out and quit your complaining. Florida is/was a swamp and should always be. I liked your idea of going back to New Jersey.
June 30th, 2009 at 2:42 pm
Saw 7 between two plants this morning, have then in a bucket with leaves from plants and threw in some lettuce we had from dinner last night. Ive seen different suggestions from this site on how to bury them as a science experiment, how can we do this safely for them? How big do they need to get before they go into the soil. How much soil?
We don’t want to dust anything on the plants for fear of hurting them or our food source, how can we keep them away naturally.
Thank you
Barb
June 29th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
Hi I was wondering if you could help me ? I was telling the Kids about this Bug I seen in out home Garden as a Kid ! it look like the
tomato hornworm but it had like a Colorful Mask ? like a VODO mask or ?
but no ware on the net can I find it ? so they do not beleave me ?
if you have any Idea of what I’m talking about and have a Picute or anything Please send it to us ?
Thank You
Higginbotham Family Garden
June 27th, 2009 at 11:31 pm
To rid you garden of the…plan carrots right next to your tomato plants! Carrots repell them!
June 17th, 2009 at 6:59 pm
I don’t have any tomato plants, but these little guys are eating all my flowers. I planted them a month ago and one day I walked out there and I thought they were little catapillers. My husband corrected me and said that I need to kill them right away. I used the marigold technique and a pesticide and its work really well! It took them about 5 days to all finally die off but I havent seen one in like 2 or 3 weeks. Thanks to this site for all the help!
June 16th, 2009 at 12:55 am
The first time I saw a moth emulating a humming bird, I was astonished. I had never been aware before, that such a large insect…which at first glance might even be mistaken for a humming bird…existed. Maybe even second or third glance. Are these the full adult forms of the dreaded horned tomoato worms? If so, I have seen them visit peach blossoms and other flowers, and so might be considered valuable pollinators, even if the larvae have a taste for tomatos. But I’m really not sure we are talking about the same thing…?
June 14th, 2009 at 9:13 pm
I’m now saving on fish food. I’ve got two Blood Parrot fish that seem to think the fat little worms are quite delicious.
June 9th, 2009 at 8:45 pm
I found a horned worm cocoon in my garden when I was planting asparagus. i wondering if your article means the cocoon will hatch in late June/early august,or if the eggs hatch at that time. from Lansing Michigan
May 1st, 2009 at 4:42 pm
Boy was I supprised when I looked at my tomato plant today (what the heck is that?) I replied to my wife. Yikes there is another one, and one more.They are hard to see but some were about three inches. I quickly put them in a jar to study and tonight I,m going to spray.This is the first summer we have tried porch plants here in Florida,This has always been a buggy place, what’s next??first it was fire ants,carpenter ants,then fruit rats, big roaches(palmetto bugs) huge spiders and so on.Don’t forget the snakes, snapper turtles, otters,rabbits,possoms, gators,ect. that frequent our back yard. I love this place??? should have stayed in Jersey.
April 22nd, 2009 at 9:39 am
My students are doing a science project on tomato worms and I was wondering how we are suppose to keep the dirt while we wait for them to turn in to moths.
February 12th, 2009 at 2:45 pm
Nasty little critters. Beautiful yes, the moths are gorgeous but my kids love to ‘quish ‘em’ into the grass. They absoulutely ruined 20 sq feet of tomatoes last year. In ONE day while we were away, all of our plants were destroyed. I wish we had the parasitic wasp around here! Do not feel sorry for the critters! And as for the science prjects.. good for you! My husband had never heard or seen of these before last year.. and I probably wouldn’t be so grossed out by them if I knew more about them.
January 6th, 2009 at 9:17 pm
hey from OZ
I dont get that “hawkworm” thankfully, but we do get other crittlers… mass companion planting and encouraging predatory insects is the way to control the critters… it also shows the biodiversity that all gardens should have to keep it healthy… this is what I have done here at home.. and I have all sorts of wonder “natural” happenings going on… I luv my gheckos (lizard)… and mud wasps. In my climate, it can go from one extreme to another… in 5 minutes sometimes… but ultimately im in country Victoria Australia. Water is one of our big problems.. but that can be over come with grey water (washing, dish water etc) and the plants luv it. Also for those with tomatoes, sweet Basil is also good to deter critters especially white fly.. In my veg patch, I have hot chilli, garlic, sweet basil, tomatoes, corriander, and Rhubarb at the end of it…. and they all seem to love where they are and what they do for each other… If you have the right climate and soils, give it a try and see how you go… and keep in mind, the word “balance”… having a balanced garden promotes harmony with plants, and humans… works wonders for your health… cheers hope this info helps… Wayne…
November 9th, 2008 at 5:26 pm
My Grandma found a tomato worm this week – November. She is giving it to my daughter for a great science project. I DON”T know ANYTHING about bugs or gardens! Please HELP!
November 4th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
My students brought me a tomato worm, they know I do this sort of thing. It buried under the dirt in the terrarium and turned brown like the surrounding dirt. I thought it was dead until 2 weeks later it had partially uncovered itself and had turned into it’s brown chrysalis form….waiting for next spring and it to emerge!
October 9th, 2008 at 10:02 am
Tracy – I’m glad my suggestion was helpful – good luck with your worm! We are on our second round of hornworms in the plastic bottle now – he just burrowed in to form his chrysalis a few days ago. Unfortunately, the darned thing went right in to the middle, just like the last one, despite the sides of the bottle being darkened. I think next time I’ll just make the dirt level lower, so the bottom of the soda can sticks up in the middle. Nice to know I’m not the only one crazy enough to want to raise Black Widow Spiders! What we do, though, is start from egg sacs – safer that way, because we don’t have to handle the adult spiders. Whenever I find an egg sac in my yard or garage, I scoop it up on a stick and drop the stick into an empty clear plastic water bottle, then screw the top on. We’ve had several sacs hatch out that way, and the kids really love seeing hundreds of tiny baby spiders when they hatch. Then we just let them eat each other for the next couple of weeks, until there are only a few left – after that, we can drop fruit flies or other small insects into the bottle for them.
Bryson – I’m sorry your worm isn’t burrowing. We had several that did not – they just sat around on the surface of the dirt until they died. Others burrowed right in. I don’t know for sure why some did well and others didn’t. The only thing I noticed is that the younger the worms were when we first captured them, the more successful we were with raising them. Some of the older worms, who were close to pupating when we caught them, did not adapt to the change in diet and environment. Maybe it was just too stressful for them?
October 7th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
These worms are pests and shouldn’t be left in your garden, despite whoever says otherwise. I just lost 1 fully mature tomato plant today due to 5 worms being on one plant. They are pests and don’t need to be “fed a separate” plant or other such nonsense.
Anyways, if it makes you feel any better i clip their heads off and feed them right to the birds.
October 6th, 2008 at 11:13 pm
i found a tomato horned worm and followed chandas advice but he just wont burrow, hes brown has Vs on his back and he has stopped eating, he hardly moves but hes not dead, what do i do?
October 6th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
I’ve heard a lot about these horned worms but have not experienced one until today! Pesky sure, but I found it to be a beautiful little creature and could not bare to kill it. So, THANK YOU CHANDRA for your information with the plastic bottle. I’m 48 and my husband thinks I’m crazy (once wanted to keep a Black Widow spider) but this is much less risky.
October 6th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
they r so nasty and awesome at the same time me my cousin and my dad caught some the other day and we named them we played with them my dad likes to feed`em to our chicken when she pecks them with her beak all this green juice comes out my little dog ate one of the green bugs yesterday me and my cousin made a funral
October 5th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
I too have the great tomato horn worm . I pull them off and throw them hard at a cement step in the garden. They ooz green but die. I used to just toss them in a bucket of water and leave them in the garden. I just found out what was bringing them to my garden. I have 4′oclocks all over my property and we enjoyed watching the huge moths flit in and out . We don’t get hummingbirds in our area except a few weeks in late August. I will now however be on my guard in reguards to those moths .
September 30th, 2008 at 6:30 pm
I had soooo many this year I didn’t know what to do with them (I couldn’t kill them, even thought they GROSS me out!), so I lobbed them over the fence (at high volosity) into the alley. Next year, I will gladly mail them ALL to you! I live in AZ.
September 30th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
I love tomato worms! I found two this summer on my neighbors tomato plants. I brought them inside as pets. I kept them in a small fish tank. I fed them tomato leaves,it ate a whole leaf right in front of me!I brought the small one to camp, then released it. The other one grew real big real fast! Then it started looking as if he didn’t feel good. When I took him outside the fresh air made him feel better,so I released him too.I will be in search for another pet tomato worm this summer.
September 27th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
Yicks! They appeared over night. Hugh green horned worms,munching away at the tomatoe plants. They did not touch the peppers. We picked off seven of them.I did not have the heart to kill them,so I relocated them,far away,in a field of brush.If the birds find them or if they become the moth,it will be an act of mother nature.
September 23rd, 2008 at 8:12 pm
My chickens LOVE these tasty (?) morsels. What a nice way to seek revenge and recycle the pest at the same time! It is also SO ecological and natural.
September 23rd, 2008 at 10:35 am
weird, I just found one eating my Mum. no tomatoes near by either…(shudder….)
September 23rd, 2008 at 1:10 am
worm! catapillars! whatever they are they are gross looking.. and the are
having a meal and a half on my tomatoes. they eat and poo on the ground.!! i got so unset i pulled them off the plant and burnt them.
even then they took a long time to die. these are super worms!! i sprayed them with soapy water to no avail i sprayed them with listerine and water to no avail i just had to burn them.!! i will try to find that worm paralizing spray at osh tomorrow. i paid good money for tomatoes SEEDS. I GREW THESE PLANTS FROM SCRATCH. GOOD BYE WORMS!!
I HOPE I HOPE
September 22nd, 2008 at 9:16 pm
Tori- if you are short on tomato leaves, they will also eat the leaves of peppers, petunias, tobacco, and jimpson weed, or anything else in that family. We just raised a whole bunch of them, and while some of the larger ones, which were pretty close to pupating already, did not switch from the tomato leaves to the jimpson weed, the younger ones did so readily. We just put cut sprigs of the jimpson weed in a bottle of water for them, and they did great. We were able to successfully hatch out three adult moths. (We had several others that did not hatch out, because at first we didn’t have enough dirt for them to burrow into.) If you are interested in hatching them, watch for a dark, pulsating line to appear down the center of the worm’s back, when it is about 4″ long or so and quite fat. This indicates that he is ready to pupate. The worms will also begin to roam around the bottom of their container, seeking dirt to burrow into, and will slow or stop feeding. The easiest way we’ve found to raise them from this point is to cut the top off of a 2-liter clear plastic soda bottle, about 4-6 inches down from the mouth. Put an aluminum soda can, upside down, in the bottom of the bottle. Now fill with dirt to just above the bottom of the can (you should have about 6″ of dirt in the bottle, all around and just covering the can). Stick several twigs diagonally into the dirt, so that they stick up 4-5 inches above the level of the dirt – these are for the hatched moth to climb onto, when he digs back out of the ground, so that his wings can unfold and develop properly. Now, put the adult worm into the bottom of the bottle, with the dirt and twigs, and a few fresh leaves in case he’s still hungry. Cut a small slit (1-2 inches long) in the top portion of the bottle, so that you can fit it back over the bottom part, overlapping the sides slightly. Now seal the two halves of the bottle together with clear packing tape. The worm will burrow down into the soil. With any luck, because of the can filling the center of the dirt chamber, he will be close enough to the side of the bottle that you can see him while he goes through his changes underground. Do not disturb the pupating worm! We made that mistake with some, and they stopped pupating and just died. He should go into his chrysalis stage, and in a few weeks (or longer, if the weather is cooler) he will dig himself out as an adult sphinx moth. Just untape the bottles to release him, after his wings have dried. The next time we try this, we are also going to tape heavy construction paper around the sides of the bottle, covering the dirt-filled area, to make it darker – our last worms managed to stay away from the sides of the bottle, so that we were not able to see them underground, but I’m hoping that by making it darker, they will not avoid the sides and we should be able to unwrap it a few days later, after they have gone underground, to see them. Good luck and have fun!
September 19th, 2008 at 10:32 am
why does no one respond!!!!!
September 19th, 2008 at 10:30 am
tomato horn worms are the worst pests ive had to deal with!
September 15th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
My son has also found one – we have him in a jar and continue to feed him tomato leaves – he takes him everywhere – he is going to school for show and tell tomorrow. We got him at my dad’s this weekend in texas but we have moved and came back to arkansas yesterday – we are limited in extra tomato leaves – wondering if there is anything else they will eat? he eats alot!!!
September 14th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
Is the compost a good place to moe these horn worms?
September 12th, 2008 at 9:10 pm
Hi! thanks for all the great info and pics! We had our very first tomato plant this year, and just as we were beginning to reap the rewards had one to begin dying. We didn’t know what the problem was — until we found these humongous caterpillars. Fortunately my almost 18 year old son knew just what they were, and that they wouldn’t hurt you, but I still would not touch them. My little ones however, liked to play with them as pets. Great impromptu science lesson! Thanks so much!
September 12th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
Great website. I’ve learned quite a bit from both the site and the posts. Funny, but I’ve got the opposite problem…I need these worms as they are very nutritious for my bearded dragons. They’re quite expensive for me to buy (and Fed Ex), so I’m trying to breed ; harvest them.
If you start to find too many in your garden, perhaps you can ebay them
September 11th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
Hi, These nice worms also love Moon Flowers, that have stripped a few of mine……
September 11th, 2008 at 7:39 pm
disgusting is all I can say we found (2) on our tomato plant and it was full of larva eggs!! I agree very surprised I have not scene a B movie about these little guys attaching the world, my skin is still crawling!!
September 11th, 2008 at 6:48 pm
LOL – I found them in my tomatoe garden too and had to research. They are definitely massive wormi’s. I picked one and set it near my bird feeder. Let’s see if the birdi’s are interested!
September 11th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
My daughter (9) loves these worms. She keeps them for a few days then lets them go free. We wanted to find out about them and came upon this site. Both my daughter and I were shocked to read that you would recommend cutting them in half with your kitchen scissors!(yummy)How heartless can you be ? Are you telling me that you pick and eat every tomato on your plants, and never waist just one that a bug can’t live on? How sad are you…..
September 11th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Hey, give these hornworms a chance!!! Those horns are not stingers and they’re not poisonous. Tomato hornworms turn into those beautiful, large Sphinx moths, which look like hummingbirds. Did you realize that???? These Sphinx moths are one of the best pollinators to be found in a garden and can pollinate hundreds of plants in a few minutes.
Pick off the offenders and give them a plant to devour (cover it with floating row cover or cheese cloth. Share your garden and you’ll be rewarded with the graceful dance of visiting Sphinx moths.
Sharon
September 10th, 2008 at 8:55 pm
When I first saw these worms I couldn’t beleive my eyes! One was so big it was about the size of my dad’s finger! My grandma found them on her tomato plant. I showed my teacher the print out from this website and we’re going to try to care for them at school through the cacoon process and maybe get to see the moths. I hope we get to see it. They’re currently in a jar and hope to get some dirt for them soon in a bigger container. I think they’re really cool.
September 10th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
I cannot find out if the worms do sting people or animals or if they are poisonous to animals that might eat them. No one ever answered the question. My cat brought one in and I am very worried.
September 9th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
wow !!! we just found one on our mater plant, eeew disgusting.. thought it was a alien or something.so i fired up the google on the internet machine and learned all about it.
thanks guys
“grossed out in appomattox
September 8th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
what if you have a science experiment due in feburary? and they just turned into a pupa yesterday or 3 dyas ago? will it hatch by then???
September 7th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
I found three worms on my tomatoe plants a week ago and cleaned up the plants as well as dispoed of the worms.
Toady 9/7/08 i found on on my eggplant. Guess they are not just on the tomatoe plant.
September 7th, 2008 at 10:40 am
we got worms off our tomato plans and gave them to a friends daughter, we want her to see them
Turn into a moth. How do we keep them alive and how long
Does it take????
September 3rd, 2008 at 8:29 pm
Hey, i know how you could kill them, my bearded dragon eats them and she loves to eat them!!! So if you want you could send them to me!!!! I wouldnt refuse!!! lol
August 31st, 2008 at 11:13 am
alberto wanted to know where to purchase these worms to feed his bearded dragons
http://www.herpfood.com/silk.html
if you do a search you will most likely find more online they also have silk worms and more
my bosses wife found a couple on her tomato plants and he is gonna save them for me if they find more so i can feed my dragons
August 30th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
I am looking for hornworm eggs. Anyone willing to collect eggs from their plants I will be happy to take.
Their diet can be changed making them non poisonous and very healthy for your reptiles.
Thanks to anyone interested in helping collect eggs. Hope to hear from you. Will send mailing address wen I am contacted with eggs.
Sincerely, Cgeryl
August 29th, 2008 at 8:22 am
ALARM! ALARM! My precious little tomato plants are being annihilated. Actually, I’ve got about 60 very large tomato plants that are under all-out attack (I’ve re-located @ 22 worms thus far)
These tomato worms are giants and boy, do they have giant appetites. I can’t understand why there’s not a 1950s B-movie about them, expecially with that horn coming outta their backs. Question; Is this horn actually a stinger, cause it sure looks like one! It looks like it could deliver a really painful sting. Also, while I was removing these worms, I placed them together in a jar and whenever they came in contact with each other, it looked as though they were trying to use their ‘horns’ as a stinger against the others. Lastly, is there something I can add to the soil during the ‘off months’ that will get rid of their larva, maybe some kinda of soil sterilization additive or something?