How to Remove Tomato Hornworms from Tomato Plants

Member

By Tommie Sandlin
User-Submitted Article

Article Rating: (3 Ratings)

Tomato hornworms are a hawkmoth in the caterpillar stage. The tomato hornworm's coloring closely matches the color of the tomato plant. Tomato hornworm's have white stripes down each side and a dark red or black stripe down the entire length of their back, ending in a "horn" like spike.

A tomato hornworm infestation starts when the hawkmoth lays it's eggs on the underside of the tomato plants leaves. These eggs will hatch usually within a month. A tomato hornworm will be very small at first, but will grow to around 4 inches in length, very quickly!

If the tomato hornworms are not found and removed from the tomato plants, your entire crop of plants can be destroyed within 1 - 2 days!

There are several methods of removing tomato hornworms from tomato plants. I will share with you the methods that I know about.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

scissors
gallon jug
or, liquid Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis)spray

Step 1

Tomato hornworms are very large, up to 4 inches in length, so they are easy to spot. You will usually find the tomato hornworms along the stem of the tomato plant. Just pick the tomato hornworm off and destroy it.

I prefer not to touch a tomato hornworm, they are very scary looking! I take my scissors and just snip them in half. I know it sounds cruel, but it is very effective.
Step 2

You can spray your tomato plants with a Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) spray. This is an environmentally friendly spray which will not harm animals or people, yet it will rid your tomato plants from tomato hornworms.
Step 3

If you wish to remove the tomato hornworms from your tomato plants, without harming the worms, using the scissors, snip off the tomato leaf or stem that the tomato hornworm is feeding on, and place them into a gallon jug. When you prune your tomato plants, place the pruning's into the jug for the hornworms to eat.

Once the hornworms have entered the pupae stage, you can release them, somewhere far away from your garden.

Photo of a tomato hornworm pupae can be found in the resource section, below.