so i found my first monster hornworm last week, and a little bit of digging around the interwoobz suggested that a blacklight flashlight would make these buggers light up like a rockefeller christmas tree.
i ordered a UV flashlight from amazon, and tonight i took it out to my container garden, and right away i located one of these beasts on a vietnamese pepper plant. these lights work, huzzah.
i caught the little bugger, submerged it in soapy water, watched it thrash about, then lie in state—and that’s when things got interesting. the last hornworm i caught sat in soapy water for a good half day before i disposed of it, but this guy was in soapy water for only a few minutes. i thought, of course it must be dead, 'cause it ain’t moving. i rinsed out the soapy water in deference to any bird or small mammal that wanted to eat this hunk of protein, left it in an open place, and when i checked on it about 10 minutes later. . . it had crawled away.
tough little zombie. gave it a proper squishing from which return would be difficult.
I shared this picture of a Tomato hornworm I found one my plants last week. Not sure if you seen this or not. I was not aware of their reaction to blacklights. I have a blacklight and will take it out in the patch tonight to see what I can find.
i made a booboo. i’m now pretty sure i caught a tobacco hornworm (they love tomato and pepper plants all the same), given the pattern and the red tail. the tomato caterpillars have a slightly different appearance and a black tail.
accordingly, i changed the thread title to something more accurate.
these creatures are so durable and powerful that they should be named after that heavy equipment company. . . wait a minute. . . .
and i’m happy to report that one of my young pepper bushes nearly defoliated by a hornworm is putting out new growth at the nodes. we’ll see whether that new growth results in peppers. . . zone 10 weather will likely keep my plants warm through november, so it’s got a chance.
We got a neat video the other day of a fly harassing the daylights out of one of those tomato worms. Yes they are destructive! Thanks for the tip for fun finding in the dark.
Of course the night has other hazzards…like snakes. One of our boys saw a “snattlerake” in the garden lastnight…and dad couldn’t find it when he tried. Dad killed a Green Mojave after dark last Friday that was trying to get in the baby quail pen. Gotta watch your step this time of year!
I’ve had hornworms completely destroy tomato plants before. For several years running that was how my tomato season would end. I look for them pretty religiously this time of year. The black light idea is awesome, now I just need to run an extension cord out to the veggie bed for my shop light/black light combo.
no need for an extension cord if you get this, the escolite UV flashlight. got mine for 10.89 @ amazon. and in the last week, the price went up to 12.99. (amazon prices also change according to your zip code. i see different prices for the same product between work and home.)
The caterpillar pictured above is indeed the Tobacco Hornworm, with its straight-line side markings, rather than the V-markings of the Tomato Hornworm.
Luna moths are in a different moth family, their caterpillars do not have the distinctive horn of the sphinx moth cats.
Freezing is a reliable way to kill these large larvae.
