I think I have hornworms!!

Came home after it was dark tonight and was watering my veggies when I noticed a pepper plant had been pretty much destroyed. It's in a hanging basket and I thought maybe it had been a deer then I was watering my broccoli (which I'm actually amazed has not died in this heat, it's a little experiment and is far away from the other veggies) and it had practically disappeared since yesterday - brought it into the light (it's in a container) and it was covered in these green caterpillar things.


I saw a green caterpillar earlier on a tomato plant and (stupidly - didn't know what it could do!) just left it so I went hunting with a flashlight and found that one and tried to pull it off and the wee thing was just hanging on for dear life! Eventually I snapped the edge of the branch off - the leaves had disappeared anyway. So I have photos:

Is this a hornworm? And could it also have destroyed my beautiful turning-red pepper?!

And the decimated broccoli!!

Spot all the things on this one!

maybe... there are some better photos in BugFiles or in this "friend or foe" article I did: http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/1270/

Although I often advocate finding another plant to move them to, because they turn into such a cool moth, in your case I'd say you are overrun with them and need to act "with extreme prejudice."

Great article, thanks.

We've found even more today... they are tobacco hornworms (red horn). My Mum has been finding them and collecting them in little dishes and videoing them fighting with each other over the food she has put in the dishes to keep them there!!

Talk about the very hungry caterpillar. I think we've found them all (today anyway) but will have to be pretty vigilant in case we have missed any - or there are tiny ones still growing.

It seems so cruel to kill them, but they are going to destroy all my veggies, and we don't have an abundance of "spare" plants to move them to either. I guess "extreme prejudice" doesn't sound quite as cruel...

Yes, that's a hornworm. Congratulations!! LOL

Also a whole heckuvalotta cabbage worms!

Ah, they're cabbage worms - thanks. I wasn't sure if they were the same thing but just not as big yet, they seemed different though, but it seemed a bit of coincidence they'd appeared at the same time. Really glad I took someone's advice (can't remember who, but it was on here) and put my broccoli far away from everything else so (hopefully) they have not affected anything else and the whole plant, or what's left of it anyway, is going out with the garden trash tonight.

Found another hornworm today munching on a roma tomato plant - am terrified I wake up tomorrow and everything is eaten!!

Doesn't take long for them to do their thing, that's for sure!

Yep. That's "Harry" Hornworm for sure!

I just pulled over 100 of those little brats out of my tomato bed!

Never had them before.......

I sympathise!! They cause some amount of damage. Thankfully my plants seem to have recovered pretty quickly, so best of luck with yours!

Thats good to know, I hope we got them all and I get to eat at least one tomatoe this year!!

If you see a hornworm with small white cocoons on it leave it be. It's doomed anyway and will never become a moth, but it is hosting a brood of larva of tiny wasps which will help control the hornworms in the future.