First time having hornworms. RIP to my pepper plants. Honestly not even mad I’ve had more peppers this year than any other year #humblebrag. I’ve read that marigolds and basil protect plants from hornworms. Any other methods that have worked for people?
by DJSleazy
12 Comments
Spray the plant with Bt. I had hornworms this year on a tomato growing right next to basil.
BT and go out at night with a UV light,pick them off.
They glow like Slimer from Ghostbusters under UV.
Spinosad
They eat peppers too???!!!😱
Wasps
I don’t see the point in preventing them. They are a native nocturnal pollinator… one of very few that fill that role. Grow some sacrificial tomatoes in a pot and just relocate the perpetrators. They will crawl down under the soil to pupate and overwinter. Move the pot a good distance from your garden and grow more sacrificial tomatoes in it the following year.
Eat them back. See how they like it.
Marigolds and basil don’t do anything as far as the hornworms go. (Had both in a bed with tomatoes – hornworms didn’t care.)
This season I think I figured it out though – around mid-July (when I usually start seeing them where I live) I started keeping a closer watch on my plants, both looking for damage and occasionally going out at night with a blacklight. Eventually I found four tiny ones, which I removed immediately and then sprayed all my peppers and tomatoes with BT spray. I resprayed after heavy rain, or if too much time had passed. I also kept looking for signs of any more of them, but honestly I never saw any others. I think I sprayed 4x total this summer. Spraying is way easier than going out at night with a blacklight, and far fewer mosquito bites in the process.
A thriving and balanced ecology.
I just relocate them to wild nightshades around my neighborhood. They will eat basically anything in the Solanaceae family, and turn into important nighttime pollinators.
Mantis?
Treat your beds with grub be gone in the fall after you harvest