CLOSED: WOW, What are these things????

Biggest caterpillars I've ever seen and they are ravenous.

That was a cherry tomato plant. Not much left of it. These two are going to town.

That's Ric's hand in the picture and he has big paws. Please tell me they are some wonderful kind of butterfly or moth and not some ugly nasty thing.

I know that there is something called a Tomato horn worm. I was looking at pictures and think that maybe what I have. But still haven't figured out what it becomes????

I think you have the closely related Tobacco hornworm moth larvae, Manduca sexta. You can see pics of both here, they're pretty similar:

http://creatures.ifas.ufl.edu/field/hornworm.htm

http://davesgarden.com/guides/bf/go/35/

I never see them on Nicotiana plants though, I wonder about that -

I believe that these are tobacco hornworms (Manduca sexta) rather than tomato hornworms (Manduca quinquemaculata). See http://creatures.ifas.ufl.edu/field/hornworm.htm for images of larvae and adults of both species.

I've had them on Nicotiana plants. They love them just as if they are a tomato.

They turn into a beautiful Hummingbird Moth, I just break off the branch or leaf they are on and re-locate them. Or, plant a few sacrificial plants in the back yard somewhere for them to have to themsmelves.

Oh so sad, I was hoping for a beautiful lunar moth.....
Yes, I would say the tobacco hornworm as the horn is red in color. Thanks

This message was edited Aug 5, 2008 9:18 PM

Oh, I have and like Hummingbird Moths. Didn't recognize the picture as a Hummingbird Moth. Not sure how many of my plants I want to sacrifice but I see that they eat Daturas and I have quite a few of them and more tomatoes in the garden than I will ever eat. But why oh why did they have to pic on my Cherry tomatoes I only have a few of them. Well I guess that's what you get when you try to attract butterflies. LOL
Thanks everyone for the info.

That was the first thing I thought when I saw that your 'mater was in a pot. It's tough when it's a certain plant like that because they are such neat moths. There are lots of volunteer cherry tomatoes here, I can't weed them all so I don't worry about them too much, but there are a couple potted different ones I wouldn't be happy about getting chomped either.

Maybe there are more places for them to hide in Nicotiana. I'll look around more. Something's eating some of them...

I was looking at one yesterday at my DIL house. Hers wasn't quite as big as mine but close. It was doing a very good job of devouring one of her Pepper plants. I didn't have my camera with me to get a picture and kind of forgot about it till I went out to get a few ripe cherry tomatoes for supper and found them. I found it interesting that one of the entries I read said they like to eat in the shade and moving them out into the sun would slow them down a little. My Cherry Tomatoes are sitting at the edge of my Gazebo and are shaded more than you would normally have them.

Nah - They'll eat in full sun. Voraciously. I am one of those awful people that thinks of them as pests. I grow tomatoes for tomatoes, not hornworms. And I don't call this particular moth a hummingbird moth, although many do. It is a sphinx moth. And so I destroy them.
Scroll down the page for various photos of hummingbird moths and sphinx moths.
http://www.whatsthatbug.com/clearwing_moth.html

This is what I have in my garden that I call a Spinx or Hummingbird Moth. Which looks different to me than the Tobacco hornworm moth pictures.

The moth you photographed, although a sphinx moth, appears to be one of the clear-winged sphinx moths in the genus Hemaris. Their caterpillars are quite different in appearance from those of the tobacco/tomato hornworms - see http://extension.missouri.edu/explore/agguides/pests/ipm1019clearwingedsphinx.htm for an example.

Thank you everyone for the very interesting info and great links.

That's what I call a hummingbird moth....complete with tail.

when we were kids we had a TON of these in utah. they would eat all of our tomato's so our parents would have us kill them :( that was 20 years ago though

Well, I solved my issue. My son came over tonight for a short visit with GS who is 5 and has a bug house. He thought they were just wonderful and took them home. Hopefully I won't get more.