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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I started a container garden this year with red and purple bell peppers, jalapenos in a separate container and a sweet meyer lemon tree in another container. I first came across these nasty guys with the bell pepper plants a few months ago. I thought I had it taken care of with neem oil but yesterday had to throw away all 6 bell pepper plants. Although I inspect my plants every day, today I will be throwing away my jalapeno plant due to the magical overnight appearance of the hornworms feasting on the jalapenos (and I just picked about 15 jalapenos this weekend to freeze, did not notice a thing). Please help me save the Sweet Meyer Lemon tree with any suggestions!!!
Do tomato or potato hornworms attack rhubarb plants ?
No, tomato hornworms feed primarily on plants in the Solanaceae (nightshade) family, which includes potatoes, eggplant, tomatoes, peppers, and others. Rhubarb is not in this family, so it is not in danger of being devoured by hornworms!
Seth (above) said he found them eating his rhubarb.
I’m concerned about our pollinators- the Hummingbird Moth. Any suggestions for where to PUT the tomato worms INSTEAD of killing them?
Hornworms feed on plants in the Solanaceae family (commonly known as “nightshades”), so they’ll need to be placed on another plant that’s in this family in order to be able to develop into moths. Tomatoes are a nightshade, as are potatoes, eggplants, peppers, and tobacco—but these are all plants that you normally wouldn’t want them to eat! There may be wild Solanaceae in your area, such as jimsonweed, horsenettle, or nightshade itself, where you could move the caterpillars to. However, these plants are poisonous, and thus hard to find.
Hornworms may feed on petunias as well. If you can’t find any wild nightshades, perhaps you could set up a couple petunia plants for the hornworms. Or, in future seasons, plant more tomatoes than you need, designating some as “caterpillar-friendly!”
I used to experience horn worms but one year I saw the white cocoons on the back. The horn worm had quit eating and soon became dessicated. The horn worm wasp emerged and propagated and I never again had a problem with the horn worm. That was the year I planted golden rod and saw so many tiny insects on it and do believe it attracted the wasp.
Tomato and Tobacco Horn Worms make great fish bait. Just place their heads on the pointy end of the fishhook and turn the wrong side out. Bream, Crappie, and Bass love them and it's a good way to get rid of them while catching fish for dinner.
I never knew that but sure will try them from now on. I have four tomato and bell pepper plants this year and have pulled off around ten of these green worms! Fishing here I come!
I'm a long time gardener, and have picked plenty of these guys off tomatoes in July or August, but I'm stumped. Today we found a huge one that had eaten nearly all the leaves off two small perennial geranium plants I was getting ready to plant in my garden. I've never seen them this early before, or eating plants other than tomatoes. Has anyone else had this happen to them? Quite a curiosity for me.
