So far, I've counted 3 hornworms but there are probably lots more that I didn't see. They are very well camoflagued! They are the same color as a tomoto stem and are very fat. One of them was at least the size of my thumb!
I'm not going to remove the hornworms because they are not harming the tomatoes and they will grow into the Sphinx Moth. I didn't take the moth picture, got it from Google. Hopefully I will some Sphinx Moths soon!
His little feet are cute!
Nice closeups!! They are destructive on the beauty of the plant, but I let them on because they make good bird food and don't stay for too long:)
ReplyDeleteI've had hornworms almost completely defoliate my tomato plants. I usually pluck them off and put them in my platform feeder. They are the host for tiny braconid wasp larvae so if it looks like your worms are covered in q-tips, then they will be eaten by the larvae when they hatch. But the moths are beautiful so maybe I'll leave a few on my plants this year.
ReplyDeleteSince I moved a bird bath near my veggies, I don't see as many of these as I used to but we get a lot of the hawk moths. They love my flowers in the eveing.
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