Depending on who you ask, hornworms are either lovely creatures or the stuff of horror films. Either way, you want them nowhere near your crops.
A Redditor shared the surprising moment they first encountered the mammoth caterpillar to the r/vegetablegardening subreddit.
Photo Credit: Reddit
Photo Credit: Reddit
“While looking to see when peppers were ripening today, I was like, ‘That’s a weird growing pe… that’s a darn caterpillar!'” they recalled. “I have only ever seen small 1½ Inch hornworms.”
Their confusion made sense, as the photos showed a three- or four-inch-long hornworm that was well-camouflaged due to its vibrant green color. Despite the fact that many of these creatures are called tomato hornworms, that wasn’t actually what the voracious caterpillar feasted on.
“It never touched the tomatoes, but it definitely ate half of one pepper plant,” the gardener revealed. In the comments, they noted that they’d since discovered even more of the hornworms.
A sign of a hornworm infestation can include the presence of pea-sized green droppings, which they described as “grenade-like looking balls.” Another gardener suggested using a UV flashlight to detect hornworms, as it makes them easier to find. The OP took them up on that with success.
As Utah State University notes, hornworms can feast on a number of plants, including tomatoes, tobacco, potato, pepper, and eggplant. Gardeners have a few ways to keep them in check without resorting to insecticides that can damage the local ecosystem.
Handpicking them like the OP did, as well as using UV lights and their poop as detection tools, is a great start. Tilling soil in both the spring and fall can interfere with their wintering. Planting borage is another way to take them on.
Natural allies in the bug world, such as lady beetles (not the invasive kind), paper wasps, and green lacewings, can take care of them as well.
Awareness is a big part of the battle, and the OP did their part by relaying their experience. How exactly you perceive hornworms is definitely in the eye of the beholder.
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“Stuff of my nightmares!” a user exclaimed.
“Found four on our tomatoes this year,” a more charitable gardener wrote. “Now every morning I look for more of these lovely creatures.”
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