My guess is he would have turned into a pretty sizable moth if he made it that far. Wish I found it earlier, I would have tried to help it along.

by dgoldstein38

29 Comments

  1. OnionSquared

    That is a hornworm. They eat tomato plants.

  2. Forward-Selection178

    Manduca Sexta larvae – Tabacco Hornworm! They turn into some really beautiful fuzzy moths.

  3. ee-ay-ee-ay-ooooo

    Good news- not a pollinator. That would be a tomato horn worm that loooves to eat your solanum-type plants ’maters, taters, angel trumpets, etc). My uncle gave me a nickel for every one I picked off of his tomato plants.

    Bad news – later on in it might’ve become a super cool moth that *is* a pollinator; known as a hummingbird moth, or a Sphinx moth. They’re called hummingbird moths because they sound just like Hummers when they hover around flowers that they are using their incredibly long tongue to suck the nectar out of (at dusk, of course).

  4. gottagrablunch

    Do people not generally know that caterpillars turn into moths or butterflies? I guess basic science education has gone down in quality.

  5. OtherwiseDoughnut582

    That’s not a pollinator. That is a decimator

  6. Y’all have me terrified of these things why do I keep seeing them in my feed 😩😩😩 they look like aliens

  7. DelightfulDaisy02

    Aw, that’s sad 😢 Looks like a moth caterpillar and would’ve been a nice pollinator.

  8. fangelo2

    They don’t last long in my garden. I have these little parasitic wasps that lay their eggs on them. The larvae eat the hornworm alive. Kind of harsh, but don’t mess with my tomatoes

  9. rojo-perro

    They’re doing what they have to here but you’re right they are good pollinators in hummingbird moth stage.

  10. zesty_meatballs

    Hornworm!! They’ll cause some damage.

  11. RadBruhh

    Thanks for caring about nature♥️

    Everyone wants to eat fresh produce, but apparently give very little care about fresh air and a healthy planet.

  12. HickoryStickz

    We call them tomato worms because that’s the only place we ever see them 😂

  13. Ciarrai_IRL

    If it wasn’t frozen to death, it would have decimated your plant. Tomato hornworm.

  14. holy-ravioli

    What I’ve learned from this subreddit is that you must feed these to your chickens. Or go get some chickens, THEN feed them the hornworm(s).

  15. grapeCoolAidDrankin

    He looks like a long baby green rhino…. so cute!

    but I’d be wigged out if I came in contact with it!

  16. It would have turned into a sphinx moth, aka a hummingbird moth.  They are big and hover at flowers like a hummingbird.

  17. Crazy_names

    Seriously. When are the mods going to make the hornworm the icon for this sub?

  18. SoftlySpokenPromises

    Tobacco Hornworm, it turns into a tobacco hawk moth. They are great pollinators but they can be destructive if not controlled

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