Preventing Tomato Hornworms in the Garden
Big, fat, and green! These caterpillars can do a lot of damage to our summer crops—especially our precious tomatoes! Learn how to control tomato hornworms in your garden.
What Are Hornworms?
If you’ve ever grown tomatoes, chances are good that you’ve dealt with these green caterpillar pests. There are two main garden pest species, tomato hornworms, and tobacco hornworms, found in most regions of the U.S. and southern Canada. Both species can ruin your tomato crop in record time! They also feed on other plants in the Solanaceae (nightshade) family: eggplants, peppers, tobacco, and potatoes. They blend in quite easily with the green foliage and feed non-stop, creating spotty and chewed leaves and fruit.
Tomato (and tobacco) hornworms live according to the following life cycle:
- In late spring, large adult moths lay eggs on the undersides of foliage, which will hatch within a week. The adult moths are easily recognizable; they’re commonly called sphinx or hummingbird moths.
- Caterpillar larvae hatch in late spring and feed for 4 to 6 weeks before creating a cocoon and overwintering in their pupal state in the soil. If the weather is warm enough, larvae may burrow for as little as 2 to 3 weeks.
- Moths emerge in the spring and then lay eggs once again. In warmer climates, more than one generation a year may be possible.
How to Identify Tomato Hornworms
Hornworms can be up to 5 inches long—which can be quite a shock when you first come across one! They do the most damage in the caterpillar—or larval—stage. They are pale green with white and black markings, plus a horn-like protrusion stemming from their rear. (Don’t worry, they aren’t able to sting or bite!) The caterpillar also has eight V-shaped stripes on its green body. Tomato hornworms come from a mottled brown-gray moth (see picture, above).
The larvae blend in really well with the plant greenery. Just get used to a daily patrol, looking for hornworm eggs and small caterpillars. Here are some cues of infestations:
- Hornworms tend to start feeding from the top of the plant; look for chewed or missing leaves.
- Look closely at the TOP of your tomato leaves for dark green or black droppings left by the larvae feeding on the leaves. Then look at the underside of leaves, and you’ll likely find a hornworm.
- Look for stems missing some leaves and wilted leaves hanging down. You may find white cocoons and their hornworm hosts nearby.
Tomato vs. Tobacco Hornworms
There are a few species of hornworms that inhabit North American gardens, including tomato hornworms (Manduca quinquemaculata) and tobacco hornworms (Manduca sexta). Both species feed on common garden plants like tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, and eggplants. Here’s how to tell which caterpillar is which:
- Tobacco hornworms have parallel white stripes; tomato hornworms have white V–shaped markings.
- Tobacco hornworms have black spots lining each of their stripes; tomato hornworms do not.
- Tobacco hornworms have a red “horn” on their tail end; tomato hornworms have a black horn.
(It’s a tobacco hornworm! Notice the white stripes with dotted black lines and a red “horn.”)
Tomato Hornworm Damage
If you see leaves with large holes and severe defoliation, devoured flowers, and/or scarring on fruit surfaces, you might have tomato or tobacco hornworms. The fruit also may be damaged by sunscald because of the reduced foliage cover.
How to Get Rid of Tomato Hornworms
- Handpicking is an excellent tactic for control if you have the time and patience, or a small garden. The caterpillars are not dangerous and can neither sting nor bite. If you are squeamish about crushing these large insects, drop them into soapy water instead (or feed them to your chickens if you’ve got a flock).
- If the hornworm population or the area of your garden is too large, insecticides can be effective, though they should be a last resort. You can use the organic pesticide Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis), which is a bacterium that acts as a stomach poison on some larval insects (but doesn’t harm other plants or animals). It must be ingested by the caterpillars to be effective, and it must be reapplied to plant foliage after rain. Please check with your local Cooperative Extension for a list of approved insecticides in your area.
- Insecticidal soaps will also kill hornworms, but the pests need to come into direct contact with the substance.
How to Prevent Tomato Hornworms
- Till soil at the beginning and end of each gardening season to destroy overwintering larvae. Tillage has been shown to cause up to 90% mortality.
- Keep wasps around; a number of species are beneficial insects that feed on hornworms and act as a biological control. You may see hornworms with parasitic wasp larvae attached, which look like grains of rice (see picture above). These attacked hornworms will continue to feed for a little while, but will soon succumb to their hitchhikers, so it’s wise to leave them alone and let the wasps carry out their life cycle. Alternatively, remove infected hornworms and place them far away from your garden. This way, the wasps will still do their job, but the hornworm won’t continue to damage your crops.
- Other beneficial insects, like ladybugs and green lacewings, may feed on young hornworms or hornworm eggs.
- To keep hornworms away from your tomato plants next year, try interplanting dill or basil; marigolds are also an excellent companion plant.
See the Garden Pest and Disease Library for more information on common pest problems.
Do you have tomato hornworms? How do you handle them in the garden?
Catherine Boeckmann
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Years ago, cutworms would devour my tomato plants just before I could harvest tomatoes until my mother-in-law passed along some tried and true Wisdom to me. When you plant your tomato plants take a "WHITE" Styrofoam cup size Large, cut the bottom out of it, place it in the hole and put your tomato sprout in it, be sure to leave the cup up out of the ground most of the way (use just enough dirt to hold it around the plant). As your tomato plant grows make sure that you prune any stems that can touch the soil which are usually the first stems so the worms cannot crawl up the stems that they can reach from the ground outside the cup. The white cup acts like a barrier to keep the cutworms off the plant, this is the same reason that crickets are kept in white Styrofoam bait boxes, cutworms & hornworms like crickets will not pass over WHITE - True story, I never have had a problem since nor has anyone I have shared this knowledge with - Blessings from Mary Joe Green Taylor !
I just put a UV blacklight flashlight on my list for purchase. Really appreciate that info. I'm not sure I want to see all the other stuff it can reveal though!
Also the info about leaving the ones that have the wasp larvae on them is interesting. Did this article really tell us they dont cause any more damage to the plant once they are studded with these little white things?
I take great pleasure in chopping these things right in half, right on the stem they are on with my Fiskar pruning shears when I find them...like killing an alien life form when their green slime is spilled. I am so mad at them for robbing me of the produce my plants would have provided, I wish I could do worse to them.
Also, when they are killed and left behind, especially the parts that fall off the plant to the ground (some parts stay clung on and shrivel right there), the rest of nature loves to eat them. I saw little yellow bees just gobbling the carcasses up and of course the ants and all love them.
Your assertion is correct: infected hornworms will continue to feed until they are killed by the parasitic wasp larvae. If you want to ensure that there will be no further damage, you can remove the infected hornworm and place it far away from your garden. This way, the caterpillar won’t damage your crops, but the wasps will still be able to emerge and attack more hornworms.
Worm / Caterpillar on Morning Glory plant and we have several other butterfly plants there but also used to have some tomatoes.
Can I leave a picture to know if this is a GIANT Swallow tail OR a Tomato Horn worm
Are Horn Worms the only GREEN worms to be found on tomatoes. I found 3 smallish green inch worms on my plants this morning, no horns I could see but many holes in leaves and one good size stem almost completely severed in half. Maybe they are baby Horn Worms?
What remedy do you suggest for those smaller green worms found imbedded in the tomato fruit itself? Finding limp, mushy green tomatoes with worms busily devouring the fruit though no sightings on the limbs or leaves. Oddly, it's random-- surrounding tomatoes seem both uninhabited and healthy. So far, no sightings of the larger horn worm.
The pest you’re describing sounds like the tomato fruitworm, which is known to bore into tomatoes and cause them to rot. Once they get inside the tomato, there’s not much you can do, so stop them beforehand by routinely checking for eggs on leaves and spraying with a natural insecticide, like Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis).
Hi Donna,
It sounds like you have cabbage loopers on your tomato plants. They eat a variety of different foliage, and are 1 to 1 1/2 inches long. Horn Worms are already babies, being the larval stage of the Sphinx Moth. Horn Worms are about 3 inches long. We hope this helps!
I just found the big est green horn worm or should I say the biggest Catapillar I've ever seen in my life
