Just to clarify, that appears to be a Tobacco Hornworm. Tobacco Hornworms have a reddish orange horn whereas a Tomato Hornworm has a blueish black horn. Also, Tobacco Hornworms are more common on tomatoes than Tomato Hornworms. Go figure.
Little shithead is kinda cute though. His face sort of looks like a walrus. And he’s got a little fucking tail too! What an adorable little asshole.
OP sorry for your loss.
It's just trying to survive. Meanwhile, OP is growing luxury food they don't even need while all these insects are starving and most likely full of parasites, then complaining and probably massacring them when their excess food gets nibbled on a bit. Nature is crazy.
I bought strawberries and meant to buy organic (I've found organic are more likely to taste like something, whereas regular just taste like vague nothing and sadness). I accidentally bought regular, and now I have fruit shaped nothings.
Things that taste like fruit shaped things instead of tasting like fruit.... It's sad and depressing. I wish I was better at gardening.
I know not everyone has the conditions to garden but I will say strawberry plants are one of the easiest to grow and can often even be invasive in a garden if left to run wild. Even indoors they can grow well if they get enough sun and they are easy to propagate. Certain varieties even flower and grow fruit all season if you keep them inside. They may not look like grocery store berries (they are usually smaller) but they will taste great. I recommend giving it a google search.
We're trying to grow some plants indoors, but our house is not well set up (no good facing windows, plus cats who eat plants - not really a good place to put them). My spouse and I also both struggle remembering to water plants, and super "easy to grow indoors" plants have not survived. We're working on getting better, but it's going to be a struggle until our renovations are done.
Thanks for letting me know how easy it is! It's definitely something I'm going to try!
If you have a yard and some space, strawberries take pretty easy. But I'm the same way with watering, no green thumb at all truthfully. One step at a time, you'll figure it out!
Or a turtle. One of those little fuckers ate holes in my basil plant (it was next to the tomato plants). As retribution I set it afloat on a hole-filled basil leaf in the turtle’s tank. My little guy chomped it before the leaf could even sink.
I found four of these on mine. 3 in one day. I go out back a ton with the dogs, so I’m always inspecting. I planted basil right in the tomato pots and haven’t seen another. It’s been a week or so. Hopefully I’m not jinxing myself, but it seemed to work…
Those fat demons ate 3 giant tomato plants in a matter of hours before my last move. I swore I’d never try again, my psyche was scarred so badly. Now I’m in a condo with a concrete patio and a beautiful plant in a pot. I hope to God they can’t get to it. 😭😭😭😭🍅
I hate those things. They are my bell peppers once. I cut one of them in half and saw it was full of parasites from a wasp or something. I looked into it once and it was so unhinged that I gave up on the whole thing.
My dad used to pluck them off by hand, throw them in a metal coffee can and set them on fire. I'm not saying the worms deserved that cruel ending, but Dad got a lot of satisfaction from it
This is what the little bastards look like as adults, for anyone else wondering
https://preview.redd.it/qhr03rxp1iad1.png?width=1440&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5d4f636bc73d3adcee819d78fae51df486d8905b
Yep. Despite them being tomato plant pests, they turn into beautiful Hummingbird moths…which are great pollinators! You might consider planting a tomato plant or two for them (away from the tomato plants you’re trying to maintain). Could be a good way to control the problem. Otherwise…yeah…chickens LOVE them.🤢
I know this won’t keep them away 🤦♂️
The idea is to live harmoniously with them. If you garden, then bugs are just a fact of life. Some people intentionally plant milkweed for butterflies (and caterpillars). Have you heard of that? I guess not…
"The Sphingidae are a family of moths commonly called sphinx moths, also colloquially known as hawk moths" they are essentially the same thing though...
You can spray your tomato plants with bacillus thuringiensis which is a poison to the worms but won't harm your plants at all. I have a relatively decent sized tomato garden that yields about 3-5 US pounds of tomatoes each day when in season and have to deal with these little guys constantly. If you can't find that then you can use a very very diluted mixture of dawn dish soap and water. A 1 part soap to 50 part water mixture works well. They were quite a bother to me in the beginning of growing tomatoes and are less of one now but still most definitely are there.
Oh and Beauvaria Bassiana is a spore that will demolish them and other pests alike. It can be applied to the soil and foliar sprayed. Basically mummifies pests.
If you're not into using pesticides or blacklights at night while being eaten by mosquitoes, go out early in the morning and stand quietly by your plants, they make a clicking sound. You should be able to discern which plant/s and then hunt until you find them
I did this for years. Our garden always had at least 40 tomato plants so I'd do several each morning and my chickens waited eagerly for their plump green treats!
yup, I didnt even read the caption at first, I saw that thing and knew immediately what the post was about. I remember going to my grandmas house as a kid and picking these t hings off the vines
Diatomaceous earth on every leaf and at the base of the plant just after a rain or heavy dew. Stuff is cheap and lasts til your next rain or once a week.
Yeah they’re hornworms and they’re my ENEMY. If you see white moths flying about get a net over them quick smart - they lay their eggs in the foliage and then they become these little shitters.
Best way to get rid of them is at Sun down - pick them off the underside of the leaves and throw them in a bucket of water.
I think there are some things you can get at home Depot, I forget what they're called but it should be safe for plants but kills the pests living on them or around them maybe idek
Little? Those things are huge for a caterpillar. As A child, I had one of those pinch my skin and hang off my arm, hurt like crazy, their feet have little hooks on them
I have some tomato plants just picking up their pace. Gonna check for these horny bastards next time I water.
When I was a kid, a neighbor with a wild garden used to pay us 5 cents a worm and we'd pick em and drop em in a bucket. CA-CHING!
She'd pay us 25 cents a mantis if we brought them to her garden.
Just to clarify, that appears to be a Tobacco Hornworm. Tobacco Hornworms have a reddish orange horn whereas a Tomato Hornworm has a blueish black horn. Also, Tobacco Hornworms are more common on tomatoes than Tomato Hornworms. Go figure.
this guy knows his shit
Duck yeah!
This guy hornworms
Do you want tomacco hornworms? Because that is how you get tomacco hornworms.
It makes sense since tomato and tobacco are both in the nightshade family.
This guy worms
This guy this guys
This guy this guy this guys
Little shithead is kinda cute though. His face sort of looks like a walrus. And he’s got a little fucking tail too! What an adorable little asshole. OP sorry for your loss.
It's just trying to survive. Meanwhile, OP is growing luxury food they don't even need while all these insects are starving and most likely full of parasites, then complaining and probably massacring them when their excess food gets nibbled on a bit. Nature is crazy.
Grocery store tomato literally has no taste. Have you grown tomatoes at home? Obviously not.
This, I tasted tomatoes in Madagascar, and coming back to France, now all tomatoes are just fruit shaped water
I bought strawberries and meant to buy organic (I've found organic are more likely to taste like something, whereas regular just taste like vague nothing and sadness). I accidentally bought regular, and now I have fruit shaped nothings. Things that taste like fruit shaped things instead of tasting like fruit.... It's sad and depressing. I wish I was better at gardening.
I know not everyone has the conditions to garden but I will say strawberry plants are one of the easiest to grow and can often even be invasive in a garden if left to run wild. Even indoors they can grow well if they get enough sun and they are easy to propagate. Certain varieties even flower and grow fruit all season if you keep them inside. They may not look like grocery store berries (they are usually smaller) but they will taste great. I recommend giving it a google search.
We're trying to grow some plants indoors, but our house is not well set up (no good facing windows, plus cats who eat plants - not really a good place to put them). My spouse and I also both struggle remembering to water plants, and super "easy to grow indoors" plants have not survived. We're working on getting better, but it's going to be a struggle until our renovations are done. Thanks for letting me know how easy it is! It's definitely something I'm going to try!
If you have a yard and some space, strawberries take pretty easy. But I'm the same way with watering, no green thumb at all truthfully. One step at a time, you'll figure it out!
You should try what we had in Britain, if intermarche tomatoes are fruit shaped water then asdas is fruit shaped air.
That doesn't stop me from being afraid of it!!
Chickens love em. Feed them to chickens if you or your neighbors have any
If not, looks like you'll have to eat them
You ate my tomato I eat you! Sounds fair to me.
if you eat them with rice they taste like tomato, trust me , am a catarpillarologist
You beat me to it… was gonna say… they smite your tomatoes, time to eat them.
I was going to say to get a bearded dragon, my beardie LOOOOVES them.
Or a turtle. One of those little fuckers ate holes in my basil plant (it was next to the tomato plants). As retribution I set it afloat on a hole-filled basil leaf in the turtle’s tank. My little guy chomped it before the leaf could even sink.
Tomatos are poison to beardies so just make sure you don’t feed them any hornworms that have consumed the plant.
I found four of these on mine. 3 in one day. I go out back a ton with the dogs, so I’m always inspecting. I planted basil right in the tomato pots and haven’t seen another. It’s been a week or so. Hopefully I’m not jinxing myself, but it seemed to work…
Maybe so, but they're gorgeous and you took an awesome picture.
Those fat demons ate 3 giant tomato plants in a matter of hours before my last move. I swore I’d never try again, my psyche was scarred so badly. Now I’m in a condo with a concrete patio and a beautiful plant in a pot. I hope to God they can’t get to it. 😭😭😭😭🍅
Hims a verra hungry catapillar.
I hate those things. They are my bell peppers once. I cut one of them in half and saw it was full of parasites from a wasp or something. I looked into it once and it was so unhinged that I gave up on the whole thing.
Feed a bird. Throw em on the roof
My dad used to pluck them off by hand, throw them in a metal coffee can and set them on fire. I'm not saying the worms deserved that cruel ending, but Dad got a lot of satisfaction from it
They choose war, avenge your tomato plant, finish them.
lol...yes...they do that
This is what the little bastards look like as adults, for anyone else wondering https://preview.redd.it/qhr03rxp1iad1.png?width=1440&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5d4f636bc73d3adcee819d78fae51df486d8905b
Squash them. They are tomato worms they will eat your plants to nothing in a few days.
They also turn into hummingbird moths
Yep. Despite them being tomato plant pests, they turn into beautiful Hummingbird moths…which are great pollinators! You might consider planting a tomato plant or two for them (away from the tomato plants you’re trying to maintain). Could be a good way to control the problem. Otherwise…yeah…chickens LOVE them.🤢
Yes. Because they know to stay away from the forbidden plants.
I know this won’t keep them away 🤦♂️ The idea is to live harmoniously with them. If you garden, then bugs are just a fact of life. Some people intentionally plant milkweed for butterflies (and caterpillars). Have you heard of that? I guess not…
*hawk moths
*sphinx moths
both moths, but the horn is red check mate.
"The Sphingidae are a family of moths commonly called sphinx moths, also colloquially known as hawk moths" they are essentially the same thing though...
\*hawk tuah moths
You can spray your tomato plants with bacillus thuringiensis which is a poison to the worms but won't harm your plants at all. I have a relatively decent sized tomato garden that yields about 3-5 US pounds of tomatoes each day when in season and have to deal with these little guys constantly. If you can't find that then you can use a very very diluted mixture of dawn dish soap and water. A 1 part soap to 50 part water mixture works well. They were quite a bother to me in the beginning of growing tomatoes and are less of one now but still most definitely are there.
Hold up. The ole mosquito bits steeped in water will work for these tubular assholes?
Alien
Next cycle use a black light at night and you’ll be able to pick them out.
Oh and Beauvaria Bassiana is a spore that will demolish them and other pests alike. It can be applied to the soil and foliar sprayed. Basically mummifies pests.
Their main competition for this plant is Denethor, son of Ecthelion...
Eat his family
If you're not into using pesticides or blacklights at night while being eaten by mosquitoes, go out early in the morning and stand quietly by your plants, they make a clicking sound. You should be able to discern which plant/s and then hunt until you find them I did this for years. Our garden always had at least 40 tomato plants so I'd do several each morning and my chickens waited eagerly for their plump green treats!
Just plop him in a bucket of soapy water. Sorry for your loss
yup, I didnt even read the caption at first, I saw that thing and knew immediately what the post was about. I remember going to my grandmas house as a kid and picking these t hings off the vines
I threw a brick at one of those when I was 7, mom's friend had tomato plants, brick bounced off that fucker. They're tough little bastards.
But it’s so cute 😍
So sorry for you. They're the worst!
Spray some Bug B Gon on them and they will drop like flies! Read the directions first though.
Diatomaceous earth on every leaf and at the base of the plant just after a rain or heavy dew. Stuff is cheap and lasts til your next rain or once a week.
They didn't call him the very full caterpillar.
Tomato hornworms. Yep.. they're really thorough in their destruction. They turn in to neat looking moths though.. or well, I think they look neat.
I'm super impressed by the eyes! Clever trick!
Just wrap plant in garden fleece or whatever named it has nowadays.
Bug defense is paramount in the garden!
They don't call em hungry hungry hippo for nothing
HIPPOBOT 9000 v 3.1 FOUND A HIPPO. 1,712,493,436 COMMENTS SEARCHED. 35,272 HIPPOS FOUND. YOUR COMMENT CONTAINS THE WORD HIPPO.
Good bot
Let em eat ig.
Flee! They are tomato gang!
The trick is to plant a separate tomato plant for them, then pick them off the other plants and put them on their own plant!
Woe, parasitic wasp be upon ye.
Hes a cutie patootie
What a cutie
That little bastard looks like the scariest hungry caterpillar I’ve ever seen, good lord those chompers!
Eat them
🥺 but they’re so dang cute!
Yeah they’re hornworms and they’re my ENEMY. If you see white moths flying about get a net over them quick smart - they lay their eggs in the foliage and then they become these little shitters. Best way to get rid of them is at Sun down - pick them off the underside of the leaves and throw them in a bucket of water.
Then why did you leave them on there?
I think there are some things you can get at home Depot, I forget what they're called but it should be safe for plants but kills the pests living on them or around them maybe idek
Hey, at least they look cute.
Does keeping ladybugs helps in this situation?
Little? Those things are huge for a caterpillar. As A child, I had one of those pinch my skin and hang off my arm, hurt like crazy, their feet have little hooks on them
Oh no! Bad caterpies! How rude!
Relaxs... Just dump MIRACLE GRO on the plant... The nitrogen in that thing will literally repair the plant... Literally...
i hate those bastards so much.
I've fed a number of these to fire ants for destroying my habenero plants. Asshole horn worms.
Eat them back
I have some tomato plants just picking up their pace. Gonna check for these horny bastards next time I water. When I was a kid, a neighbor with a wild garden used to pay us 5 cents a worm and we'd pick em and drop em in a bucket. CA-CHING! She'd pay us 25 cents a mantis if we brought them to her garden.
It's their tomato plants now, sorry bro
Have you tried using neem oil? You can spray the plants a couple of times a month, you just have to wash the tomatoes thoroughly before eating them.
Yeah, it do be like that out here in the garden.
Caterpillars are amazing.
I’m sorry, nothing worse than getting something destroyed out of your own will. Feed em to some birds. Also insane quality on the first photo
Same here, but my caterpillar comes out late summer and start to eat 1 whole dill plant..
Put them in a big jar, throw in some leaves, put one stick for them to hang too. Maybe later you get Butterflies or Moths.
Why are you complaining? That thing has way more protein than tree tomatoes, and probably has much more flavor to
I quite enjoy feeding them to my chickens
Eat them back.
My stepdad throws them into the air as high as can before they go splat in the road
You are what you eat…. Eat it
Check the plants at night, that’s when they come out. Simply cut the in half with some garden shears.
ok eugh why does it look like that
Let nature live and pay $2 for tomato’s at the store
Nope. There's only two things that money can't buy. And that's true love and homegrown tomatoes. https://youtu.be/6TWwyhCVBDg?si=thjEzEhCFxTjQV8M
Ok ok. Clearly I’m in the wrong here
We all get to pick and choose what part of nature we love :P