Seen as a pest by many, most people don't realize these turn into beneficial moth pollinators.

I've never had any tomato plant killed by these caterpillars, most quickly recovered and grew new leaves infact. Unless your plants are for work or you live off the grid and your life depends on tomato's, you don't have to worry if you see these caterpillars. I even plant extra tomato's solely to put extra hornworms on to ensure more moths.

Wasps naturally target some of them, so chances are half won't survive for long, but some will always make it to pupate. Kill all the caterpillars and you hurt the beneficial wasp population as well, nature has no trouble balancing itself out we don't need to intervene.

Tomato hornworms have a black 'horn', Tobacco hornworms red with black tip 'horn'. Both eat nightshade plants including wild nightshade which is an invasive weed.

If left alone they turn into these beautiful; beneficial moths, which deep throated flowers need to pollinate them no other animal can reach deep enough to get nectar.

I'm pretty sure humming birds can do that.

thisisme2 said:I'm pretty sure humming birds can do that.

Not for night blooming flowers

keithp2012 said:

Not for night blooming flowers

That's an incredibly rare phenomenon and something you won't find on perennials or 99.999% of annuals in North America so it's really a moot point.

They are sure pretty, but if I see them, I kill them.

We have a lot native datura moonflower growing around where I live. And I can tell you first hand. They bloom at night. But the blooms last into the morning hours when humming birds are active. I am not aware of any other night blooming plants other than a few cacti here. And humming birds are their chief pollinators.

Perhaps the moth of the tomato horned worm is the only insect pollinator for these types of flowers during the night. But there are non-insects like humming birds that can and do pollinate these flowers before the blooms die off in the early morning hours.

They are a major pollinator for gourds (Lagenaria siceraria)

I just wanted to share my opinion, I know many hate them and there's enough dislike topics for them, but I don't see why so I made a positive discussion.
like the dandelion we label a pest to lawns, but our lawns are unnatural unlike the dandelion which has a purpose. These moths have a purpose too and even for wasps or bird food. I just don't see why a tomato plant is so important to warrant killing, especially in my experience of never having a plant die from these caterpillars and I have grown a lot of tomatoes in my lifetime! Live and let live is the motto in my garden, we all need to cohabitate and share our planet.

keithp2012 said:I just wanted to share my opinion, I know many hate them and there's enough dislike topics for them, but I don't see why so I made a positive discussion.
like the dandelion we label a pest to lawns, but our lawns are unnatural unlike the dandelion which has a purpose. These moths have a purpose too and even for wasps or bird food. I just don't see why a tomato plant is so important to warrant killing, especially in my experience of never having a plant die from these caterpillars and I have grown a lot of tomatoes in my lifetime! Live and let live is the motto in my garden, we all need to cohabitate and share our planet.

I eat tomatoes. I don't eat tomato horned worms. That's enough of a reason for me.

But if you are happy to share your tomatoes with them that's fine with me. I share my Figs and Mulberries with birds and I don't kill them for it. Though the cat does. But that's not on me.

Just remember, tomato hornworms DO NOT become Hummingbird Moths ((Hemaris spp.)(day-flying) and there are other night-flying moth pollinators that are not tomato hornworm moths.

I let them stay on my potato plants, but they become chicken food when I find them on my tomatoes. Didn't have too many this year.

It has been a long time since I have even seen a tomato hornworm in the patch. There have been Sphynx Moths around but the later life cycle has not been a problem. However, you eat my tomato leaves, you die.

The first year that I had tomatoes planted in my large porch planters, I noticed one tomato hornworm. He wasn't doing anything. He had already been parasitized - had wasp eggs all over his back. So I let him be. The next year I had little wasps hovering around my tomato plants. They prevented the stinkbug infestation that I'd had the prior year. So, yes, if you leave things alone, the preditor-prey relationships balance out,

I no longer let the ADT man knock down wasp nests or spider webs. He only gets to spray around my foundation for termites.

thisisme2 said:

I eat tomatoes. I don't eat tomato horned worms. That's enough of a reason for me.

But if you are happy to share your tomatoes with them that's fine with me. I share my Figs and Mulberries with birds and I don't kill them for it. Though the cat does. But that's not on me.

I share my apples with a squirrel. Let's hope when I get back, that's all they have been eating and leave the rest for me.

Oak trees have nut production cycles. One such year was in about 1962 or 1964. Our oak trees had so many acorns that they were lying in a solid layer in my mother's garden, and all over the oak woods in back of our property. The squirrels had a population boom because of the plenty. I mean, the following year squirrels were all over the place, My Dad had numerous dwarf fruit trees, but the overpopulated squirrels were consistently beating us to the fruit. So my dad decided that if they were going to eat his fruit, that we would eat THEM. So he bought traps. And my mother saved a lot on her meat bill over the next few years. I can tell you that fried squirrel tastes a whole lot like dark meat chicken. It's very tasty. Sometimes humans need to be part of the equation i balancing population issues. This was one of those times.

Concur: in the 30's and 40's squirrels , rabbits and other wild game and fish kept us from starvation.

thisisme2 said:I'm pretty sure humming birds can do that.

I have seen two humming birds up here in the past ten years.
I have Datura, a lot of ,so some thing is keeping them going but I would not bet a plug nickel on humming birds doing it though I would like to see one occasionally.
My one "wild" garden as ma called it , she used to go out in farm woods and transplant plants from there, before weed violets took over had a lot of plants that attracted humming bird moths so I saw them often by the house where the garden was.
I have never had bug problems on my tomatoes.

RpR said:
I have never had bug problems on my tomatoes.

With I could say the same. Some years the White Flies and or Aphids are here in truly amazing numbers.

I have never had an insect problem on my tomatoes at all since I let the predatory wasp eggs go ahead and develop on the hornworm. However, that first summer the stinkbugs had already gotten a head start on the tomatoes, and they were a mess. I think those tomato plants must have had stinkbug eggs on the undersides of the leaves when I purchased them. Since then I have purchased my plants elsewhere and with the help of the wasps, have had no insect problems at all. I think I have a toad or two also out there among the tomato plants. I can hear him singing his song in the evenings. I'm sure he helps also.