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Weedeater
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ID a worm please?

He'd be kind of cute if he didn't have such a voracious appetite. He ate this whole darn plant overnight. I have never seen anything like the little critter (about 1" long, maybe 1 1/4" straightened out)

Anyway, here's some pics. Please tell me if you know ought about 'him' and his haunts & habits- and how to be and stay shut of him!

Here he is at the scene of the crime with his victim!
(He had got hold of a rock there and was holding on to it for dear life!)
I think my close ups will give you all all the detail you might desire.

[img]https://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y88/nothernug/Home%20and%20Garden/aBUG003.jpg[/img][/img]

Some more shots.
[img]https://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y88/nothernug/Home%20and%20Garden/aBUG009.jpg[/img]

[img]https://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y88/nothernug/Home%20and%20Garden/aBUG012.jpg[/img]

[img]https://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y88/nothernug/Home%20and%20Garden/aBUG010.jpg[/img]

[img]https://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y88/nothernug/Home%20and%20Garden/aBUG014.jpg[/img]

Eagerly awaiting your replies with all due gratitude.
Thanks!

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Rogue11
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Looks like a tomato horn worm. Great pictures by the way.
They will eat tomatoes and their leaves as well as pepper and eggplants. As you already noticed they have quite an appetite and can defoliate your plants easily.
I usually pick them off by hand if I find them in my garden. if you find one there are probably more around. they can blend in easily, so look also for their droppings on and beneath plants.

ruggr10
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Ahhhh! I hate tomato hornworms.... They are quite beautiful, but just like a beautiful woman, they can be devastating!

gumbo2176
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Those things have voracious appetites. In one night, one of those horn worms almost totally defoliated the top 1/3 of a 4 ft. tomato plant a month or so ago. They do blend in very well to the leaves and stems like mentioned.

Not long ago someone posted a pic of one of these pests with larvae attached to it that looked like tiny grains of rice all over the body. Do not kill the ones that look like that since they are infested with parasitic larvae that will eventually kill the horn worm and hatch and go on to infest and kill more horn worms. Mother Nature's Pest Control at work.

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Francis Barnswallow
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Killed 2 of those this morning. I've never had an issue with these worms before but this year I've killed around 20 so far. :?

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Weedeater
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Rogue11 wrote:Looks like a tomato horn worm. Great pictures by the way.
They will eat tomatoes and their leaves as well as pepper and eggplants. As you already noticed they have quite an appetite and can defoliate your plants easily.
I usually pick them off by hand if I find them in my garden. if you find one there are probably more around. they can blend in easily, so look also for their droppings on and beneath plants.
Thanks on the pics. One year 'Mom' said I could get a digital camera for my Christmas present. I had specific wants and had to buy used. I settled on this Olympus C770 "Ultra-zoom." Macro to 3/4" and 10x optical zoom with Olympus lens. It has served me well for several years now and continues to do so as you see.

Nice cat btw. We had one like it when I was young. Named him "Buffy" when he was a kitten. At 15+ scarred pounds and the baddest cat in the county, "buffy" just didn't seem to fit so I just called him Tom. :)

Our big boy now is named Rocky after Bullwinkle's flying squirrel. I guess because his sib was named Bullwinkle? A friend gave the two cats to us and after a few days Bullwinkle was never seen again but Rocky has become a fantastic member of the family and is a pretty good mouser for a Tom (with the occasional rabbit thrown in).
[img]https://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y88/nothernug/Home%20and%20Garden/Rockyschair3-09.jpg[/img]


Thanks y'all on this worm. Is there a way to treat to head them off or is the best bet just daily inspection and pluck 'em where you find 'em?

gumbo2176
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I just pluck them and dispose of them. I don't get too many and I really prefer to not spray unless things really get out of hand--like last summer when I awoke one morning to find literally thousands of stink bugs eating everything in my garden.

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veteran
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I found a perfect use for your worm.... TEQUILA!!!

[img]https://location3-beta.location3.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/tequila-worm.gif[/img]

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Halfway
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They get big and go crazy on a tomatoe plant. I think they turn into a moth that mimicks a humming bird.

BT get's 'em, hehehehe. :twisted:

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Francis Barnswallow
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BT get's 'em, hehehehe.

I found another one this afternoon that was HUGE. I then plopped it on a hook and caught a 3 pound yellow bullhead catfish. My garden feeds my family and attracts bait. Catch and release of course.

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Rogue11
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Weedeater wrote:
Thanks y'all on this worm. Is there a way to treat to head them off or is the best bet just daily inspection and pluck 'em where you find 'em?
Plugging them off is probably the best way to go. You can try catching the moths before they lay eggs with traps but you might also catch and kill beneficial insects that way.
I just found three of them today munching on my sunflower leaves. Didn't even know they also like sunflowers. But at least I am pretty sure they would have a hard time defoliating this baby in one night. :lol:

[img]https://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h317/Bailey1048/DSCN0511.jpg[/img]

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applestar
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It's actually a TOBACCO hornworm, evidenced by the diagonal line pattern:
https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=94346#94346

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Weedeater
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applestar wrote:It's actually a TOBACCO hornworm, evidenced by the diagonal line pattern:
https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=94346#94346
Thanks. However I pursued it further and it appears the names, at least in the main, are interchangeable.

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applestar
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Differentiation according to this site :
https://www.coopext.colostate.edu/4dmg/Pests/tomato.htm

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Francis Barnswallow
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Rogue11 how old is that sunflower plant? I planted one a month ago and it's no taller than 8 inches.

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Rogue11
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Francis Barnswallow wrote:Rogue11 how old is that sunflower plant? I planted one a month ago and it's no taller than 8 inches.
those two sunflowers were planted on march 23rd they grew slower until they reached about 3 feet and then more than a foot every week

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cherishedtiger
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Yup had one completely destroy a bell pepper plant. Had 3 nicely growing peppers on it, went to bed, woke up the next morning to only having 1/2 a bell pepper left. I was heart broken!!! I hate those guys!!!

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Francis Barnswallow
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cherishedtiger wrote:Yup had one completely destroy a bell pepper plant. Had 3 nicely growing peppers on it, went to bed, woke up the next morning to only having 1/2 a bell pepper left. I was heart broken!!! I hate those guys!!!

Thanks for the heads up. I didn't think they'd chow down on pepper plants. I've got 10 pepper plants growing nicely and producing. I'll keep an eye out for the horned worms because like I said previously, I'm killing them constantly.....at least 5 a day.

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TheWaterbug
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Weedeater wrote:He'd be kind of cute if he didn't have such a voracious appetite.
[img]https://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y88/nothernug/Home%20and%20Garden/aBUG009.jpg[/img]
He is very cute, for a caterpillar. This shot looks like something from a police lineup, guilty look and all. He looks like he's holding something he stole.

So what happened to him? Boot heel? Formaldehyde jar? Terrarium?

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Weedeater
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The little critter had got ahold of a pebble there and no desire to let go of it. We're simple folk so he succumbed to ye olde #10 work boot.

And thanks for the link specifying difference between mater & terbacky worms. :cool:

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TheWaterbug
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applestar wrote:It's actually a TOBACCO hornworm, evidenced by the diagonal line pattern:
https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=94346#94346
Wow. That guy died a horrible, horrible death. A boot heel would have been merciful.

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vegetable-gardener88
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Great picture, I'm sure he's smiling at the camera in one of them:) Don't have these in the UK. It looks very much like the UK caterpillars but prettier:)

garden5
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One thing to note, though, is you will sometimes come across one of these with little whit "grubs" all over it. Leave these in the garden (worm and all).

The worm won't do much damage and the larvae will hatch into beneficial parasitic wasps.

Example: [img]https://us.123rf.com/400wm/400/400/sbonk/sbonk0606/sbonk060600063/442341-a-tomato-hornworm-with-wasp-eggs-a-wasp-has-injected-her-eggs-into-this-hornworm-when-the-eggs-hatch.jpg[/img]



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