Comments on: Green Hornworms Destroy Tomato Plants. Chomp! Chomp! (Pictures)

By: Catharine

Catharine — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 22:51:21 +0000

Just to make all the gardeners out their cringe, I’ll throw out this little tidbit… I was just at a reptile show and these little pest are now being sold as a great reptile food! With a fast growth rate, 24 days to maturity, they grow much faster than any other reptile food worm readily available. Because they fill with more moisture than other worms and have no exoskeleton they’re great for reptiles that easily run into digestion issues due to dehydration.

Ready for this? Brace yourselves! The hornworms sell for $11 per dozen!!!

Unfortunately, those of you with an infestation haven’t hit the jackpot though… I guess the tomato plant diet makes the garden variety hornworms toxic to most critters… The breeder raised variety are on what looks to be some sort of solid grain mash diet, and thus, not toxic due to their diet…

I thought some of you would be interested in that weird little solution to a terrible pest…

By: austin

austin — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 00:06:24 +0000

i caught one today it destroyed all of my dads tomato plants!!! i think it looks realy cool its the first time i have ever seen one. at first i was like WHATS THAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! but then i was like “oh its just a catipiller” i am gona bring it to school tomarrow to show mt science teacher. They dont move very fast. I have a question how far do they move over a peirod of 24 hours???

By: bailey

bailey — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 19:27:47 +0000

there hungry leve them alone !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By: Amateur

Amateur — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 06:22:24 +0000

I’ve been lucky, though we have plenty of Hummingbird moths, I have spotted only a single one in my garden, even though I had sprayed only a few days before.
Still it ate nearly an entire pepper plant before I found the thing the pant was already sickly from not getting enough sun so it wasn’t much of a loss.

I left it there because I couldn’t pry it off and a few hours later I come back to find it sitting on a tomato plant. Well that did it, I pulled it off and put it in the Kudzu, with luck it’ll somehow learn to eat that instead, plenty of that to go around.

By: Josie

Josie — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 20:49:09 +0000

Hey Maggie, I believe you about the barking…..lol I hate these things sooooo much, way to destructive*

By: Maggie

Maggie — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 16:51:12 +0000

I just found a bunch of these in the weeds in our greenhouse. I am not kidding when I say one “barked” at me as I flipped it over trying to fling it into a pot. They also seem to spit a green slime. Talk about alien bugs! My husband is ready to have me committed unless I can prove it made a noise when provoked. Let me know if you have “heard” this yourself.

By: Helen

Helen — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 20:52:15 +0000

Hi.I too have caterpillar problem, they eat the leafes of my beautiful flowers. I hate them and I hate the snaills/slugss too.I put some peppers and the caterpillart start eating them.What I found is, if you mix washing up liquid with water and then spray under the leafes they will die.The mistake I made was that I made it too strong and killed the plants.So be carefull if you use this method.It does work but you need to put less washing up liquid in the water otherwise you kill your plants. Also for slugs I found that if you collect them during the midnight in a jar or plastic cut bottle put some vinegar on top of the slug, that way you will be sure you will kill them.If you use this method for slugs again you need to mix the vinegar with water and make it strong.Do not spray straight on the grass otherwise you kill the slug but also the grass burns out and you will be left with empthy burnet grass patches.You need to collect the slugs in a jar and spray them in the jar NOT ON THE GRASS. I am speaking from my mistakes.Hope this helps.