Hornworms can be incredibly destructive in your garden. Here’s your battle plan for defeating the dreaded tomato hornworm and saving your tomato plants.
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34 Comments
25% off CaliKim Seed Collections, CK Smart Pots, books, and garden kits with code “CALIKIM25” at https://calikimgardenandhome.com. (ends 9/12/23).
🥬September "Fun Fall Greens" Subscription Box is here! $9 off 1st box w/ code “FUNFALLGREENS”. FREE BONUS: Vermisterra Earthworm Casting Tea, a concentrated soil enricher that supercharges plant growth and makes gardening easy. Visit https://vermisterra.com for organic fertilizers and soil amendments.
Thanks for gardening with us! -CaliKim & CameraGuy
Yes , first time to deal with the hornworms! Hopefully the last time!
I found three on my tomato plants this year for the first time. One had white eggs on it's back.
Lots of hornworms here!
Oh yes! I have picked several. Supposedly they can be identified at night with a black light. I just use gloves to remove them.
Those demon worms are so ubiquitous in Southern California that I just gave up on my first try at growing tomatoes. Spending the majority of my gardening time battling them (and other pests, most notably in my backyard the squirrels who feasted on my tomatoes) is not my idea of an enjoyable hobby — I'd rather spend more time fishing. I have seen those gigantic moths at night and they're truly awesome but sorry, now I hate 'em.
I'll try the recommended demon worm pesticide next year. Any suggestions for squirrel suppression? Short of my pellet gun, of course, because I kinda like having the squirrels around. I get great belly laughs watching them outsmart the dogs and hurling insults at them from the trees.
This year, I had caught 3 big tomato hornworms. Surprisingly, they left my tomato plant alone but attacked my pepper plants and water spinach. I picked them off using chopsticks and then stepped on them to their death. 😂
Hi CaliKim,
I found 7 horn worms about 3 weekends ago. The first few were cut in half. They are my enemy and I’m not squeamish. The last 4 I placed on our bird feeders and they just disappeared 😊. I have since started using Captain Jacks dead bug 👍
Thanks for your videos.
Kim, I just watched your video from 9 YEARS AGO, about the dreaded tomato hornworm!! And then you post this!! 😂
I usually pick them off with a stick, or cut the branch they’re on. Sometimes I kill them, sometimes I leave them for the birds & lizards.
Your poor tomato plant, it got stripped bare nekkid! I must be lucky here in PNW 8b as I have yet to see one of these disgusting creepy crawlies. I have lots of birds in my area, maybe they're picking them off? My closest marigolds are 10 feet away from my San Marzanos, probably too far away as a deterrent plant? Is this rookie gardener actually doing something right for once?
I found 2 monster sized hornworms this year, but they were on my pepper plants. I've been using my blacklight flashlight which makes them neon green when it's dark out and easy to spot. This helps me find them a lot easier!
Yikes
I pick them off and drop into a mesh laundry bag with a dry branch and any scrap fruits/veggies I have. Tie the top so birds don’t get them. I release when they become butterfly’s.
One year I checked the plants every morning for horn worm eggs and I picked off 22 in a day at one point. The following year I didn’t have a problem with them. It’s like knocked off their cycle in my yard.
I plant extra tomato plants. I love how they change into a beautiful Hummingbird Moth. I still get enough tomatoes that I need.
Yep! After roaming my garden after dark with a black light flashlight to locate them, I put on my garden gloves, pick them off and put them in a bucket with about 3 inches of water and a few squirts of Dawn dish soap. Killed them! I hold onto my bucket for a few nights and re-use the same soapy water. I dump it after I've gone 3 nights and no new finds. I dump my water in the street so various birds can have a snack. – Rhonda
OMG! I can't even pull them off with tongs! I have to cut the branch that they're on.
Great video
🌺Aloha Kim/Jerry, Nice tool 🤭The last time we saw that type of worm it was on our sweet potatoes, it was my first encounter of bugs in our garden. Hmm that was about 3 years ago in Phase 1.Like the IG closeup. Ugh
I found fifteen hornworms, on two Dad's Sunset tomato plants. They devastated the plants overnight necessitating their removal. Today I found a cutworm infestation on my pepper plants. I cut away the damaged limbs, and am waiting until late evening to spray them with Spinosad. I just sprayed Spinosad on my cantaloupe and squash plants to prevent a pickleworm infestation two days ago. I should have sprayed the pepper plants then. On the positive side, I harvested 2.5 quarts of peppers—cored and diced today, and expect to harvest many more before the frost kills them in mid to late October. It is still hot here in Sylacauga Al, with daily temps between 90-95F. I have six comfrey plants started from root stock to add to my herb garden.
Seems like they would be Chicken Candy. If I see any, I will pull them off & give them to my "Girls"! Extra protein, right?
Oh yes I have. Destroyed the 1 plant I had. Guess I'll have to use a magnifying glass next time.
I found one earlier this year on my tomato plant and one a couple of days ago on my pepper plant. I didn't know whether to pull them of or not, because they had white eggs on them. I saw where that is eggs for beneficial bugs. Is this true?
Glad to know what the worm is. I thought it was a caterpillar so initially I wasn’t killing them, but putting them on bushes at the back of my property. They decimated my tomato plants.
Yes, I have had to deal with the hornworm this summer. Not last summer though. I have used the Captain Jack. Do you have any hint on dealing the grasshoppers. They are the worse in my garden.
I pick them off with my fingers, I'm not the squeamish type. While they do make a pretty moth and are just trying to survive, I don't want them in my garden. I always feel bad about killing anything, though, I still do it.
We grow them really big here in Texas! Thankfully, I check twice a day and the droppings are also Texas-size.
I lived in SoCal in your area for 16 years, I grew a tomato garden. These little bastards were the bane of my existence as a grower.
I found 6 hornworms on my black prince tomatoe in my smart pots. I wonder if my 3 plants can recover because they are my tomatoe flowers as well.
I have been very lucky to not have any hornworms this year 🐛
I have no idea how they get SO BIG, SO FAST. One minute a plant is ok, the next thing I know there's a great big ugly invader from space on it that's eaten a lot of my plant. And they're tough to pull off. It sickens me, so I have a pair of dedicated silicone-coated tongs for this purpose. The silicone really helps grip them. I once saw a bird actually WRESTLE with a tomato hornworm to get it off the plant. The first time I tried to pull a hornworm off of a tomato plant, its "horn" shot out. I darn near passed out. One time I saw a hornworm with parasitic wasp eggs all over it. 🤢🤮 I either throw them onto the sidewalk for the birds to get, or I dump them in a (very very disposable) cup of soapy water. I checked my plants during the day, and I used an inexpensive blacklight flashlight from Amazon to find them at night.
That sphinx moth looks like an armor-plated biological warfare unit. It shows no mercy, so neither do I. Bye-bye hornworms!
Definitely picked off quite a few and I noticed like you said because a lot of leaves were chewed off! Plus I learned from you some years ago CaliKim
I've seen a total of 3. Found 2 yesterday. Luckily they were still small and I got them off quickly.