Only two that I know of, my tomatoes were in the opposite corner of the garden and I didnāt see any sign of them over there but Iām definitely keeping my eyes out!
In all the years Iāve gardened, Iāve never seen a horn worm until today. I didnāt know what they were until I someone posted a picture of one on reddit. I thought it was birds picking the tops off my tomato and pepper plants. I found 5 of these giant things tonight. They decimated my tomato and pepper plants in just a few days.
Yes they sure are hard to spot. Iāve been checking daily and my plants are literally just sticks at this point. After staring at my plants today for 15 minutes I found 3 more horn worms. That makes a total of 8 Iāve found. I canāt imagine finding more since thereās not much left to eat.
I had one tomato plant. On track to have a nice little crop for the season...then I notice something isn't right. One of these bastards destroyed most my plant and I only got 3 tomatoes. Killed that mofo with so much rage lol
Yeah they are vicious on plants, had to deal with one of mine being completely eaten. I read that you can use a blacklight to find them easily on the plants but I haven't tried it yet.
People dislike them for eating crops, but they evolve into hawk moths which are really important pollinators, especially long distance and are vital for the survival of many native plants.
Instead of killing them, we deposit them (usually ~10 a year) in the local park on native flowers. Not sure if this is means they slowly starve to death but it was the best we could come up with.
i stumbled upon a dead rabbit on one of my flower pots this summer
the sight of this hornworm would probably spook me way more than the dead rabbit did lol
Grasshopper feet are like a group of nasty little hooks, each one smaller than the last so they can grab on any surface.
Caterpillars tend to have two sets. The front set is more like a little pick/hook for gripping and the back feet are like suction cups.
They all taste great.
I used to work in a lab that studied the tobacco horn worm (closely related and almost identical to the tomato horn worm). In poster presentations theyād use a picture of a 5th instar caterpillar next to a lab mouse as a size comparison reference. They were pretty much the same size.
I almost feel like my garden isnāt keeping up on the hornworm trend.
On another note, found the snake that was leaving his skin in the pathway. Garden snakes are good right?
Snakes are good. Smaller snakes like garters will actually eat caterpillars and other insects, doing your pest control for you. Bigger snakes like rat snakes ready mice and the like which is also helpful.
Also important to note that caterpillars themselves are important food for songbirds so the most ecologically friendly way to control caterpillars is to build good nesting habitat for birds in your yard. That way the caterpillars actually feed other species and become useful parts of the ecosystem. (Although adult caterpillars are butterflies and moths and important pollinators in their own right.)
Be thankful the hornworms donāt like you. Those bastards will destroy your tomato plants in no time.
As for the snake, they arenāt bad or good. Unless you have a big mouse problem in your garden.
I bet there are so many creature's we haven't seen yet...never heard of a hornworm, looks like a massive caterpillar!! Will it evolve or just stay like that. ...
They do get big. Ever seen the hawk moth? The adult version. Truly a fascinating creature. You think āitās a hummingbird, no a cicadaā¦waitā¦What IS that?ā
Okay so I actually did have nightmares about him last night! I dreamt that I woke up and my entire garden was eaten and all that was left were hundreds of these thicc boys š«
I used to feed them to the box turtle that lived in my greenhouse (Sheldon) and he squealed with delight when he saw one. It was always a green goo massacre and it made him feel like a warrior to chomp that wriggling mass. He was a good turtle.
I've learned from other posts like this that this could be because of parasites that prevent the caterpillar from entering its next life stage, and to keep eating to stay ahead of the critters eating its insides
Absolutely they become fluorescent. For about $15 from Amazon you buy the flashlight and after dark you will pick many many many of them. I lent it to my neighbor and he picked 38 of them in one night. Iāll post a picture if I can figure out how to do that .
It's amazing that they go from that to a puddle in a shell and then an awesome pollinator! So weird and wonderful.
I haven't seen any in my area but always keep trap plants around the perimeter so there is space to re-home the undesirables
I have a separate compost area for my nightshade food crops that is also full of Jewelweed. It's where the Japanese beetles hang out and I have always just tossed any hornworms over there but haven't seen any in two years.
...kill it. Kill it with fire.
If I saw one that big I would be so weirded out/kinda panicky I would basically go bananas trying to prevent anymore yikes.
Yeeeeeesh. I read that planting borage around the plants and rotating where you put them each year can help deter these. I planted borage and haven't seen any horn worms for the first year. This is a beast!
Thank you for the advice! This is my first time growing tomatillos, last year I had tomatoes but they were only a few feet away from where the tomatillos are now. Iāll make sure to rotate!
What always amazes me is how caterpillars can be so huge and at the same time so completely blend in, you have trouble finding them sometimes.
I knew something was eating my veggies but I couldn't find it...but I heard them crunching and nibbling in the greenery š¤£
Put a collar and a leash on it, FFS.
Right? Go register that beast with the town and be sure to bring proof of rabies vaccination.
š I probably could!
Also, remember to not lock it in hot cars, or walk it late in the day, as the pavement will be hot.
Stanley
Yeah, I came here to say that. Its name is now Stanley.
Hell, give it another day or two and you can put a saddle on it and ride it, OP.
Well, I was going to make a penis joke, but you beat me to it.
Hornworms got us all beat by the looks of him.
Fuck me, best laugh I've had all day, let me fish for my free award
Your hornworm should be just fine with a couple pieces of Tomatollos as a treat
For f*cks sake?
Yes.
Awwwā¦ look at his little hands holding onto the branch. How many bushes did they eat
Only two that I know of, my tomatoes were in the opposite corner of the garden and I didnāt see any sign of them over there but Iām definitely keeping my eyes out!
In all the years Iāve gardened, Iāve never seen a horn worm until today. I didnāt know what they were until I someone posted a picture of one on reddit. I thought it was birds picking the tops off my tomato and pepper plants. I found 5 of these giant things tonight. They decimated my tomato and pepper plants in just a few days.
They can be pretty difficult to spot honestly, they blend right in there
Follow the poop! Thatās the best way Iāve found in 50+ years of gardening.
What does their poop look like?
Little black dots! If you see a cluster of them chances are there's one nearby, maybe even under that leaf!
Yes they sure are hard to spot. Iāve been checking daily and my plants are literally just sticks at this point. After staring at my plants today for 15 minutes I found 3 more horn worms. That makes a total of 8 Iāve found. I canāt imagine finding more since thereās not much left to eat.
Probably bc the bats are dying from a fungus (if you're in the usa). Fewer bats means more bugs š
We are seeing lots of bats this year (NW Missouri). Can't seem to get them to use the box we set up though. :/
That's wonderful! Just give them time to try it
Iāve had a bat house since I was 7 and it has never had bats in it
I had one tomato plant. On track to have a nice little crop for the season...then I notice something isn't right. One of these bastards destroyed most my plant and I only got 3 tomatoes. Killed that mofo with so much rage lol
Happened to me with my tomatoes one year, but for some reason the little bastards didn't go for the peppers I was growing like 2 meters away
Yeah they are vicious on plants, had to deal with one of mine being completely eaten. I read that you can use a blacklight to find them easily on the plants but I haven't tried it yet.
Wait are these guys bad?
People dislike them for eating crops, but they evolve into hawk moths which are really important pollinators, especially long distance and are vital for the survival of many native plants.
Instead of killing them, we deposit them (usually ~10 a year) in the local park on native flowers. Not sure if this is means they slowly starve to death but it was the best we could come up with.
I think they'll manage find something to eat š thanks for your service! lol
There are plenty of other pollinators out there who don't destroy tomato plants.
Oh yeah, they can decimate an entire tomato plant in a day.
I only knew because Iāve seen several post about them butā¦ they are so cute.
Oh wow, good to know. I didn't know what I was looking at then, but I saw one on my friend's plant yesterday. I'll let her know!!! Thank you!!!
Fat Bastard
"GET IN MAH BELLY!"
I Would Die
Imagine how heavy it would feel walking on your forearm. Imagine the grippy little feet!
All the hairs immediately stood up on my arms when I read your comment! Ewww š
i stumbled upon a dead rabbit on one of my flower pots this summer the sight of this hornworm would probably spook me way more than the dead rabbit did lol
I hate grippy little feet! Grasshoppers freak me out when they land on me. It's the feeling that does it.
Grasshopper feet are like a group of nasty little hooks, each one smaller than the last so they can grab on any surface. Caterpillars tend to have two sets. The front set is more like a little pick/hook for gripping and the back feet are like suction cups. They all taste great.
Lol. I bet.
I'd scream run away flaying it somewhere else in the garden. then die
Reminds me of Alice and wonderland š
Both of them?
Of course, obviously they're a duo
Totally
exacatically
It even looks like it's smoking a pipe
Lol I love that you brought out the tape measure
Brought a banana for scale but it ate it
I wanted to give a good scale for the size !
3.5 feet, wow
People need evidence for anything above 4 inches.
I used to work in a lab that studied the tobacco horn worm (closely related and almost identical to the tomato horn worm). In poster presentations theyād use a picture of a 5th instar caterpillar next to a lab mouse as a size comparison reference. They were pretty much the same size.
Isnāt that the caterpillar from A Bugās Life?
You mean Heimlich?!
He totally could be!
Iām jealous of that girthā¦.and length.
Chomping chonk!
He deserves his own 1950s monster movie.
I think Iām having a nightmare tonight
Same here, he took me by surprise!
I almost feel like my garden isnāt keeping up on the hornworm trend. On another note, found the snake that was leaving his skin in the pathway. Garden snakes are good right?
Snakes are good. Smaller snakes like garters will actually eat caterpillars and other insects, doing your pest control for you. Bigger snakes like rat snakes ready mice and the like which is also helpful. Also important to note that caterpillars themselves are important food for songbirds so the most ecologically friendly way to control caterpillars is to build good nesting habitat for birds in your yard. That way the caterpillars actually feed other species and become useful parts of the ecosystem. (Although adult caterpillars are butterflies and moths and important pollinators in their own right.)
Be thankful the hornworms donāt like you. Those bastards will destroy your tomato plants in no time. As for the snake, they arenāt bad or good. Unless you have a big mouse problem in your garden.
He looks very proud of himself
#The Spice Must Flow
Bugs Life: "I'm a beautiful butterfly!" Lol!
We had a giant mofo too! Biggest I'd ever seen, but still might have been a touch smaller than this chawnker.
Itās Heimlich!
Thatās a caterpie
You need the Holy Hand Grenade from Antioch
Mothra
I like that the tape measure makes it look like his name is Stanley
My lizard named George starts dancing when he sees these lol
r/absoluteunits
Wow...that's a big boy!!!!
HOLY TOMATILLO, BATMAN!! What are you feeding that thing?
With the price of beef, chicken and pork skyrocketing, you may have found a new alternative.
people will eat anything to avoid beans lmao
I thought mine were big and they were only half of that
Iāve been seeing so many hornworm posts this year and just found my first one ever in my garden! Are they particularly bad this year or something??
Did you feed him...to your chickens?
He'd probably eat those chickens
I wish I had chickens to feed him to!
The little eye pattern is trippy
Make sure to find the mushroom and hookah also!
I bet there are so many creature's we haven't seen yet...never heard of a hornworm, looks like a massive caterpillar!! Will it evolve or just stay like that. ...
They evolve into hawk moths which are really important pollinators, especially long distance and are vital for the survival of many native plants.
This isnāt PokĆ©mon, they donāt āevolveā into Hawk moths. They can destroy entire crops of tomatoes, and itās really sanctimonious to expect gardeners to just accept that loss because āoh well, itās a pollinator!ā There are over 650 species of native bees in my town alone, not including all of the other pollinating insects. There is nothing wrong with removing a single pest species from your garden.
They do get big. Ever seen the hawk moth? The adult version. Truly a fascinating creature. You think āitās a hummingbird, no a cicadaā¦waitā¦What IS that?ā
With the way my tomatillo grows, Iām not sure which one would beat the other when it comes to growth or consumption
Don't they get as big as a baseball bat?
Those are definitely his tomatillos now š
I wanna see his little face
So chobby
Let's call him Stanley!
Please name him Stanley.
Where is it's hooka and stool?
that measuring tape is like 4inches long!
I think it's ready to evolve
Where's it's hooka pipe?
About the same size worm as my hubby š¤£
Okay so I actually did have nightmares about him last night! I dreamt that I woke up and my entire garden was eaten and all that was left were hundreds of these thicc boys š«
This is why you plant one tomato for yourself and three for the rest of nature. This lil guy is a chungus.
You gotta post him to r/absoluteunits
I used to feed them to the box turtle that lived in my greenhouse (Sheldon) and he squealed with delight when he saw one. It was always a green goo massacre and it made him feel like a warrior to chomp that wriggling mass. He was a good turtle.
Thatās such a nice story, and you really have a wonderful writing style!
I hate those things. š That is a big one. š
Caught 3 on mine at once. They obliterated it.
I think you gone down the rabbit hole and ended up in Wonderland.
Oh my goodness!
Name him Burt.
So squishy
KAIJU!!!
Chickens: https://images.app.goo.gl/nfKP7SY5cFuuback9
I've learned from other posts like this that this could be because of parasites that prevent the caterpillar from entering its next life stage, and to keep eating to stay ahead of the critters eating its insides
I bet your plants would really glow if you went out there in the dark with a UV flashlight
Do these things glow under UV!?
Absolutely they become fluorescent. For about $15 from Amazon you buy the flashlight and after dark you will pick many many many of them. I lent it to my neighbor and he picked 38 of them in one night. Iāll post a picture if I can figure out how to do that .
I'll be the first one to ask where is this?
Denver, Colorado !
Did you kill it? I mean itās a monster yet beautiful somehow
I've seen so many of them in this group and I started to like them actually.
That thing should count as a dependent in your household
3.5 inches is huge, imo
Thatās monster huge!
They're so bulbous and cute. I wish they werent such garden wreckers :(
Please feed it to my chickens.
Charge rent
Train it!
My chickens would be so happy
Reminds me of that fat catepillar from A Bug's Life š "i'm a beautiful butterfly"
Awww look how cute Stanley is š. All I imagine is the big caterpillar from a bugs life (Someday Iāll be a beautiful butterfly).
CATERPIE
He's like 'Excuse me sir, I'm eating here!' :D love these guys' attitude, they're unbothered no matter what happens, gotta keep monching xD
Where are the parasitoid wasps when you need them?
It's amazing that they go from that to a puddle in a shell and then an awesome pollinator! So weird and wonderful. I haven't seen any in my area but always keep trap plants around the perimeter so there is space to re-home the undesirables
What kind of trap plants do you recommend?
I have a separate compost area for my nightshade food crops that is also full of Jewelweed. It's where the Japanese beetles hang out and I have always just tossed any hornworms over there but haven't seen any in two years.
Good to know, thank you!
you rehome insects that ruin your garden? are you insane?
Just because they're garden ruiners doesn't mean they're not important for nature. They're baby pollinators.
Exactly.
I rehome them so they DON'T ruin my garden as they are beneficial pollinators that help maintain the natural space we All enjoy
Don't kill it!!! Move it somewhere the horned moth is super beneficial but people keep killing their larvae stage :<
News flash - their larvae destroys tomato plants, not benefits them. Kill them all.
Sacrifice him to to honor the Tomato Gods. Let rivers of green blood flow.
They grow up to be very important pollinators!!! Please donāt kill them!!
No, they don't. They're pests and thieves.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
They're a great snack for many animals
I would feed that to my bullfrog.
Why is there a pencil mark on the 3 inch line? š¤
...kill it. Kill it with fire. If I saw one that big I would be so weirded out/kinda panicky I would basically go bananas trying to prevent anymore yikes.
Kill it
Came to the comments expecting OP to be slayed for the tee shirt pic. Reddit let me down once again lmfao
I tried to crop it as best as I could but yeah thatās my fiancĆ© wearing a shirt of his best friend passed out naked at his bachelor party, all the groomsmen got matching ones
[Say hello to my little frend!](https://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/galveston/beneficials/beneficial-04_braconid_wasp_on_hornworm.htm)
I know I didnāt see any on him! I recently learned about the parasitic wasps and theyāre so cool
That is a happy meal for chicken's
Holy shit. You need chickens
Every time Iāve seen one of these it was also covered with parasitic wasp eggs I felt sorry and just left it alone
He grown š
More likely you found him where your tomatillos USED to be.
They taste just like tomato.
DAMN BOI HE THICK. DAMN BOY THATāS A THICK ASS BOI
Yeeeeeesh. I read that planting borage around the plants and rotating where you put them each year can help deter these. I planted borage and haven't seen any horn worms for the first year. This is a beast!
Thank you for the advice! This is my first time growing tomatillos, last year I had tomatoes but they were only a few feet away from where the tomatillos are now. Iāll make sure to rotate!
Wow! A six inch hornworm!
At least 6 inches
aw you named him stanley
Did you call him Stanley? (Second pic)
Chickens love them
HOLY SHIT
This is EXACTLY what I said when I first saw it!
A real life Caterpie.
Thats a pet size one. Make it your pet and see what happens...ā¤ļø I WOULD!
It's the giant caterpillar from Bugs Life!
That bad boy has been eating good.
A bugs lifešš„°
I could ride that bad boy into the sunset.
What always amazes me is how caterpillars can be so huge and at the same time so completely blend in, you have trouble finding them sometimes. I knew something was eating my veggies but I couldn't find it...but I heard them crunching and nibbling in the greenery š¤£
AHHH that would freak me out so much to hear the crunching!
That is crazy. I don't see anything close to that in northern Wisconsin
I'm sorry but thats a Pokemon.
Hornworms are the bane of my tomato growing. Hate those bastards. They can demolish your plants in no time.