I’ve seen lots of people on here talking about how they squish them or feed them to their chickens, but have any of you had luck eradicating them without killing them? No judgement for how anyone decides to handle their own gardens, but if it’s possible I’d like to avoid killing something that’s just trying to survive like the rest of us, even if it shares a food source with me. This might be a long shot but if anyone has some advice I’d really appreciate it (and I’m sure they would too!) 🐛
by Interesting_Sorbet_9
44 Comments
Sacrificial tomato plants in a designated part of the garden
Or find a neighbor you don’t like.
Edited to add: or a neighbor who dgaf about their lawn/plants
This is the only reason you need to get chickens. You’re welcome.
Sacrificial tomato plant
I cut off whatever branch they’re on and relocate it near my compost bin. I’d like to think that with the branch and whatever is in my compost, they’ll have enough food to still survive…
No idea if thats correct, but its what I tell myself because I dont want to kill them either.
It’s not that deep. Just mush them and throw them back in your soil.
You may be killing the beneficial wasp hornworm predstors doing that.
Soak them in water overnight to clean them off. A little bit of egg wash, some bread crumbs, fry in super hot oil. Dip them in ranch.
Killing a hornworm is no different than killing a grasshopper or mosquito. Your car kills hundreds of bugs a day. Are you going to stop driving because all those bugs flying above the road are “just trying to survive like the rest of us”?
If you’re torn, you don’t want any advice from me.
Feed them to chicken shoot go fishing with them.
We planted basil near by and haven’t see one worm all year.
They go on the plant of your enemy
they are pretty interesting, same goes for svb even though it’s the bane of my existence- they are native insects that adapted over millennia to use plants we value as their sole hosts- they do turn into pretty insects later on in life, but do they really need to be so voracious with the plants…
I feel the same about killing things. What Gandalf said to Frodo about not being too quick to take life when you don’t have the power to give it comes to mind. So does Abbie Hoffman’s quote about being forced to eat what you kill putting and end to war ( or killing hornworms in this case). I would either plant enough to spare like it’s been suggested or drive them out of town and release them where there are host plants.
My dad traumatized me by burning them with a blow torch. Not recommended.
I love them so much. Hawk moths are cool as hell, even in this squishy, velvety chonk-form. I usually have a volunteer tomato plant or two somewhere in my garden and they get relocated there during the height of the growing season. But once garden overwhelm sets in, they stay wherever they happen to be and I let them feast. In my experience, if the plants are big enough, I still get plenty of tomatoes and they mainly stick to eating the foliage.
they look caterpillars
Find a friend with a bearded dragon
You need to take a more utilitarian mindset into this. Think of them like dengue-carrying mosquitos
If you save them anywhere near your garden you are guaranteeing an infestation next year. They pupate underground, hatch into giant five-spotted hawk moths, lay eggs, and the cycle repeats, sometimes twice a year depending on the region.
I collected some in a jar just like you the other day but my son wouldn’t let me chuck them em over the fence (into an empty lot). So he now has a jar of pet caterpillars he brings tomato leaves to. They haven’t died yet and poop a lot!
Birds need to eat
r/eatityoucoward
Nature will teach you why love isn’t always the answer, and I’m an avid nature lover lol. These things were literally made in a lab anyway.
Skewer them on a bamboo skewer and put them near your plants to let birds know where to look.
Slurp slurp
there’s a lot of invasive plant species that hornworms eat! I’d find some in your area and let them go to town
I gave my hornworms their own plant. I even talked a coworker into bringing me the hornworms on his tomatoes, so the wouldn’t be killed. I had 7 hornworms that season and and one evening in the spring I had 7 hummingbirds hawk moths. I could not have been a coincidence. It was magical.
I feed mine to the local tarantula.
I have a giant, bushy sacrificial tomato plant. I call it Boromir. It has no chance.
If you have any orb weavers in your garden, you could become their best friend by feeding them delicious worms.
Get a lizard
If you can bear leaving them eventually you may get help from birds and parasitic wasps that eat them.
My turtles go crazy for these guys
Lizard treats my leopard geeko used to love them
Guess you need to buy a leopard gecko now
Put them on your worst neighbor’s pepper or tomato plants.
Put them on a volunteer tomato or other nightshade far away from your tomatoes and peppers… but I’d feed them to the birds as you may inadvertently end up creating a hotspot for future population growth.
Befriend a crow
https://preview.redd.it/mt2apxokvaih1.jpeg?width=899&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cce7b61c5daea4f67afa58da551e732f23ddead4
i thought that was a superhero of some sort wearing a cape and a mask
You just have to pick them off. Anything you use that would prevent the moth from reaching your plant would also block your pollinators.
The reptile community adores these guys as pet food, and you can dip into their knowledge to find alternative plants for them to strip of foliage
https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/all-the-foods-hornworms-eat.60418/
get chicken
You’re horn-torn. It’s relatively common.
I wonder if they’d enjoy chilling in one of those butterfly grow cages…