They can also be a little intimidating, as garden pests go, due to their large size.
A tomato hornworm can grow up to 5 inches long and as fat as your index finger.
They have V-shaped, yellowish-white markings and a black ‘horn’ or spur on their posterior segment.
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A mature caterpillar can easily kill a large tomato plant in a couple of days.
These destructive pests do have some enemies.
Here, we’ll look at the beneficial insect that can eradicate hornworms and other pests from your garden.
Should I Kill Tomato Hornworms?
It has been inoculated by a parasitic braconid wasp that laid its eggs underneath the skin of the hornworm.
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This frass is comparable to the size of the caterpillar.
The bigger it gets, the bigger the black pellets of waste get.
How Can Tomato Hornworms Help Your Garden?
Female wasps can lay up to 200 eggs a day as long as a host insect is available.
They represent a non-toxic method for maintaining an ecological balance in the garden environment.
Braconid wasps also are efficient pollinators visiting both ornamental and vegetable flowers transferring pollen for fertilization.
Once a hornworm has been injected with braconid wasp eggs, its life cycle starts to deteriorate.
If you find a hornworm in your tomato patch covered with wasp cocoons, leave it alone.
Adults feed on nectar and pollen from a number of herbs and native flowers.
Here are some plants you might grow to attract braconid wasps.
Lady beetles and green lacewings feed on small hornworms and hornworm eggs.
Paper wasps and other parasitic wasps in the Trichogammid species also eat hornworms.
Plant mums, marigolds, nasturtiums, and petunias to keep hornworms away.
They also avoid a number of herbs including basil, dill, lavender, catnip, and rosemary.
Hornworms are easiest to spot in late afternoon and early evening feeding at the top of your tomato plants.
In the heat of the day they stay in the lower foliage and are harder to spot.
