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Ozark Lady
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Location: NW Arkansas, USA zone 7A elevation 1561 feet

Boy, hornworms!
I have been having to water my plants almost daily. Drought is bad right now.
I watered today, yesterday I watered the forest garden, and bag garden.
So, I only missed one day...just one. And I arrived to an almost bare...Hillbilly tomato.
It is in full bloom, it was so pretty!
I looked and looked, found one, found a cutworm, and then another hornworm. I searched and searched for more!
I didn't see any, anywhere else.
But, Bt only works on small worms, the large ones, you have to hand pick. And I am sorry folks I find it satisfying to throw them on the ground and step on them! Mean I know... but, those are my plants not theirs! Go pick on the wild ones!
I didn't see any baby hornworms anywhere. Seems these guys arrived fullgrown. I know they didn't, but they sure got huge quick!

You can tell it is drought, grasshoppers, harlequins, stink bugs, cutworms and hornworms. My goodness, doesn't look like I will get a bite of anything at all from the garden. :cry:

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applestar
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Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

parcgreene wrote:Here's the kind I had:

[img]https://i50.tinypic.com/2r3y0kl.jpg[/img]
Last year I misidentified one of those as Tomato Horn worm, but [url=https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=90520#90520]was pointed out that it's a Tobacco Hornworm.[/url]

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applestar
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Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

Ozark Lady, I know what you mean about the hornworms! I found a big tobacco hornworm on one of my POTATO Silo potatoes -- clue was the big droppings on the Atlantic Giant Pumpkin leaves below. I'm seeing small droppings on another leaf but Try as I might, I CANNOT find the source caterpillar. I guess I have to wait until it grows up some. I just hope they're not eating the coveted True Potato Seed berries. :shock:

The big ol ' caterpillar is in my kitchen in an emptied toy storage tub. DD sacrificed part of her dress up tulle to make a screened cover. I guess we're going to keep it.... :roll:

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Ozark Lady
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Joined: Tue Jan 05, 2010 5:28 pm
Location: NW Arkansas, USA zone 7A elevation 1561 feet

I am going to spray some bt today. I searched and searched and all I found was the 3 worms on the Hillbilly tomato.
There are no missing leaves on the others.
But, the oddest thing is going on.
I am not used to container growing at all.
I killed everything in them, last time I tried these barrels.
This time, I have had better luck.
But, in one barrel, is the worm damaged tomato.
In another barrel is a Risentraube tomato with BER. I took off all damaged fruits, have been careful to water, and now the lower leaves are yellowing and dying.
In a third barrel is the Grueso tomato, and get this, I mulched on top to help hold moisture, and it is sending roots out of the mulch. I buried that thing deep, so it would have lots of roots, then I mulched it. To check for water, I dig down beside the edge and check the soil... and it is full of roots, up in the mulch! I have never had any plant put out roots in the mulch before. It wilts constantly. This is so odd.
The OSU Blue, Peach Blow Sutton, Brandywine, Belgian Giant, Cherokee Purple, and Burpee Long Keepers all seem to be doing great, no issues, and raised the same, and in the same half barrels.

My potatoes are gone, between drought and bugs, I am about to pull them and just put something productive there, as well as in the brassica bed. I have done all that I can, these two just lost to the drought and bugs!
So, I have 4 beds to replant. I think squash, field peas, herbs etc.
2 beds were flowers, onions, and garlic. So it wasn't drought and bugs that got them, I expected these to come available.

bird dog
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Location: Ukiah, Ca.

My vote also goes for hand picking. They are real easy to track by spotting their droppings, as much as they eat there are alot of them. I have a family of scrub jays that nest on the edge of my garden and I have seen them get them.

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soil
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more birds, more birds, more birds! never see a hornworm again.

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applestar
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Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

:lol: Soil, only problem with that for me is that a wren has staked out that area of the garden by claiming the two birdhouses on the fence posts. Can you imagine a house wren tackling a nearly full grown hornworm? :o

Maybe he'll find the little one while it's still his own size.... 8) :lol:

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Gary350
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Location: TN. 50 years of gardening experience.

You need some bird houses. I have 25 bird houses you can see 11 bird houses in this picture, 8 of them are easy to see. I never have a bug problem in the garden and I never spray anything for bugs. Most of these houses are for Wrens, a few are for sparrows. Red birds like the every green tree. Sometimes a brown thrasher will nest in the blackberries. A sparrow is nesting in the Blue bird house this year. Double clip the photo it will get larger. Put a very small 25 to 40 watt light bulb outside to attract flying insects after dark bats will come and eat all of the bugs that fly around the light. Bats do not like heat anything larger than 40 watts or bats will not come.

[img]https://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h292/mikeweaver/BirdHouse.jpg[/img]

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stella1751
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Location: Wyoming

Halfway wrote:Ok, got a handle on slugs and cabbage lopper eating my first tomatoes, now I have this guy!!

My research shows it is a hornworm?

I have not used any pesticides (organic or chemical) at this point.

Can I get some recommendations for both organic and chemical solutions?

Thank you!

[url=https://img693.imageshack.us/I/1000506t.jpg/][img]https://img693.imageshack.us/img693/3056/1000506t.jpg[/img][/url]

Uploaded with [url=https://imageshack.us]ImageShack.us[/url]
What are the odds? Today I found my first one of these ever! I at first thought it was a piece of wood wedged standing up at the jointure between the stem and a branch. Mine wasn't as big as yours, though. I'm glad you started this thread!

KathyWid
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Joined: Thu Jun 24, 2010 3:49 pm
Location: Lake Wylie, SC

The tomato hornworm and the tobacco hornworm look a lot a like! It's easy for gardeners to mistake them for each other.

They're both green and cylindrical; they both grow to be 2-3 inches long!

The tomato hornworm: black or dark horn; V-shaped stripes
The tobacco hornworm: red horn; diagonal white stripes

No matter which, both these pests love to munch on tomato leaves, stems, and fruit. They've even been spotted on the same plant.



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