My daughter found this guy in our Morning Glories. It's really big and has a horn on one end.
What is this?
I've always called them "tobacco worms." I've had them on my tomato plants before, they would strip the leaves off the stems. They were very hard to find because they would be on the back of the leaf. They eat like crazy and if you have more than one or two, they can almost eat up a tomato plant in a couple of days. BTW, I'm visiting my daughter in Seattle this week and they have morning glories growing wild here. Gardeners don't like them because they smother their other plants! I've only seen them in white though.
We've always called them tobacco horn worms and they can really eat a lot. They do blend in well w/ the leaves of tomato plants...hard to believe they can be so hard to see sometimes especially as big as they get. Sometimes you can see little black balls on the leaves of plants, that would be their poop, and if you look close you can usually find the caterpillar. Sometimes you just follow the trail! Bt is a good organic approach...won't hurt anything else but the caterpillar who eats it.
That's not the same thing as this, is it? I thought this was a really neat caterpiller.
I vote to save the little guy!! I know they eat a lot, but they turn into gorgeous moths that fly around at night and pollinate night blooming plants like datura, brugmansia, ipomoea macrorhiza, and such...
Some of them are kinda plain, but most are really pretty!
They look like hummingbirds at night.
We see them hovering around the moonflower vines at night, and they are pretty fun to watch..
Please no BT!! You can send him to my yard, if you don't want him! lol...
-T
Seedpicker-
I take it your not interested in a fall tomato crop if you want us to send them to you, right?
LOL
Debbie
:)
Actually I haven't seen those tomato hornworms around in many years. Uh oh...they might have heard me huh?
Hi Deb-
Actually, I plant tomatoes every year and always have great yeilds...they don't eat the tomatoes, of course, just the leaves. I always seem to have plenty of foliage for them, so it doesn't bother me. Watching them at night is well worth a few tattered tomato leaves...
It isn't like they are the most beautiful plant to start with, lol...
-T
Oh maggiemoo, I think you might have a Luna Moth cat! Do not kill him! (please!) let me do some googling...
I thought it was, but went back again to look for that little stripe on the back, and see that it's actually a Polyphemus moth!
This message was edited Jul 8, 2005 6:07 PM
This message was edited Jul 8, 2005 6:12 PM
Seedpicker you are so right...the tomato is an ugly plant! Just makes a great fruit/vegetable (?) to make up for it! Have you started your fall plants yet?
Deb
I am always starting more than I could possibly use, or plant, so I guess the answer is an eternal "yes"..., lol...
-T
Do you buy plants or plant seeds now? I have never had a fall garden, but I want one. When would I plant bird house gourd seed outside?
Thanks,
Sandy ^8^
I've never grown birdhouse gourds but I believe they take a long season to grow (like we don't have one!).
This year I'm planting seeds (never done it so it will be an adventure) and plants. Now I'm on the west side of Houston off North hwy 6 so we get a little bit colder than you or other parts of Houston do. I lovingly refer to it as "Little House on the Katy Prairie" and I've been here 12 years in this house. Plants I always like to get in by August 1st. Now this year I'm gonna try seeds in the ground too and they are going in tomorrow.
Why you may ask? It's because until yeasterday (and that was only a half inch) we went 39 days without any rain at all. Yes, that's 39 days above 90 degrees everyday and not a drop of rain! In Houston. So I'm going to try seeds so hopefully they won't be as stressed as transplants. Of course I will be dragging the hose around to keep them wet, twice a day.
I've gotten pretty used to dragging hoses all over the place...I think it's a new form of "aerobic" exercise.
:) Debbie (who has done every kind of rain dance there is, washes the car almost daily, and has seriously thought of buying a 50 lb bag of portland cement and leaving it on the back patio in hopes of rain)
Deb-
You are not alone...that dry/hot streak is up here, over us, too...
sure makes me wish we had a sprinkler system...I am a slave to the hose, lol...
Yeah, I don't remember what thread it was on, but somebody said they feel like a garden ornament, standing out there with the hose every day!
I have a drip irrigation system in my rose bed, hope to expand it this weekend to two other beds.
I actually started noticing those moths--they are kind big, brown, with fat bodies and do hover like Hummingbirds? They are out right before it gets "dark-thirty" and seem to enjoy my echinaceas and the Porterweed. I may have to re-examine my thoughts about the tomato hornworm--that should be easy to do since I've never even seen them in the 12 years I've been at this house. I've left the leaf-rollers on the cannas this year because I heard they were Brazilian skippers, right? And I plant plenty of butterfly weed for the monarch's. Now please, don't tell me anything good about the cabbage loppers that like my fall brocolli--those guys do too much damage! LOL
Here is a picture I took of one of these hardy eaters on my Moon Flower plants. I had seen the moths the year before. Here is a neat site link that helps identify things that bug you. Pretty cool IMHO.
http://whatsthatbug.com/tomato.html
Sheila in FW TX
You have to admire something that rotund that still pulls off an elegant look!
:-)
I hear you maggie--that's definitely the largest species of caterpillar I have ever seen!
:) Debbie
You could hand pick them and put them somewhere else. I hand pick all of the caterpillars out of my garden and usually kill them, though it gives me a pang of guilt. Lately I have decided only to kill the obvious culprits (cabbage loopers, cut worms) and leave the rest be or relocate them. I wouldn't leave the tomato horn worm in your tomatoes though. If they get big enough and there are enough of them they really can eat a lot. Then again, maybe you wouldn't need to prune:) Maybe I will experiment and put any tomato horn worms I see this year in one big indeterminate tomato plant, off to the side, and see what happens.
I had two hornworms eat three cayenne pepper plants in one afternoon -- leaves, peppers, and all. They are VERY destructive. But they really are cute. The "horn" is not used as a weapon, and it isn't toxic or anything. Sorry, I hate to kill anything at all, but I put these where the birds can find them. I'm not exaggerating -- these guys took out everything on the plants. Fourteen mature peppers, and they were still munching!!!
Sandy, check out the "Ornamental Gourds" forum. LOTS of information. I grew birdhouse gourds in pots last year. You have to let them dry on the vine and they're not terribly pretty at that point, but if that doesn't bother you, have at it!
Oh, these guys are fun! I used to go on hunts for them when I was a kid, and every now and then I still find a really huge one in my garden. I like their little pokey horns, but I'm really fascinated by their stripes. They almost don't seem real! I've found them eating not only my tomatoes, but they'll eat eggplants, datura, and brugmansia.
Here's one I found about 4 years ago eating my 'Blackcurrant Swirl'...
Thanks.brigidlily I will check it out
I have a bad memory of finding one of those in a bowl of Campbell's tomato soup. I didn't eat tomato soup for a long long time afterwards.
I sent them a photo of the creature in the soup and they really didn't give a darned. Didn't even offer me a coupon for another can.
I didn't pursue it as it wasn't worth the trouble. DH says it was just a meat addition to the soup that they were experimenting with. Sure!
Charlene
euw...
Hi all..
Charlene.... I didn't even see the worm..lol and I don't know if I want to eat anymore tomato soup !! can't believe they wouldn't do anything about that one though...
I guess I am mean.. but I am with bridgidlilly...hate those horn worms... and I think they are spooky... not cute... to each his own though... right?? hehe. I hate to kill anything... so for the most part I leave them... but now.... Cut worms??? They are soooo destructive... I do try to find those
My garden is planted for the most part.. and the crows are biting the corn right at the ground level. I read yrs ago they do it for the moisture. I have a little "pond" I call it... watering trough sunk in the ground, that I covered cause my pom luves to swim, and doesn't care how dirty the water is... I have never had a problem with the crows untill this year... guess I am going to have to uncover it, cause it really worked... for the crows that is.
Becky
Is there anything at all good about either of those two creatures? I see so many grub worms.
Charlene
Free bird food.
If you have a tomato plant you want to get rid of, just deposit the hornworm on it and it will strip the plant of its leaves in 1-2 days. :)
Oh you bet they'll eat anything. One of them stripped one of my Dat's last year then moved on to the one closest before I caught him. I had 4 Brugs planted out in the yard and there was one on each. I saw what I'm pretty sure was the mama a few nights before. Beautiful moth, but oh my goodness what voracious and destructive little things. Needless to say there were no new moths from that brood.
Anne