Did you know this about Tomato Hornworms?

Gargoyle91

Gargoyle91

I was doing a bit of research on pepper pest and found this lil tidbit ---They glow under UV or black light!
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And I have this puppy I use for finding Mineral rocks  I'm going hunting tonight !
 
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Anyway just thought I would share:)
 
incase you are inclined to use pesticides.
 
permethrin works flawlessly if you can spray the whole plant. i had them bad on my toms a year or so back. sprayed in the evening, then i went out and shook the plants the next morning and bunches fell out.

its degraded by sunlight from what i recall, so its best used in the evening.
 
Gargoyle91 said:
I was doing a bit of research on pepper pest and found this lil tidbit ---They glow under UV or black light!
 
 
And I have this puppy I use for finding Mineral rocks  I'm going hunting tonight !
 
 
Anyway just thought I would share:)
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Awesome!
 
I've got a epoxy curing 'gun' that spits plenty of UV. It works great on scorpions and rocks, but I'd never considered illuminating my plants with it.  (Doh. Not even out of curiosity. :( ) Will try this evening and report!
 
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I squint a lot and make a point of not sticking it in my eye!  :eek:
 
Searched the plants last night but didn't find any worms, glowing or otherwise.
The flowers light up nicely and the Bih J pods emit a soft robin's egg blue.  The leaves produce a faint, dull, rich red, presumably from the chlorophyll.  None of the other pods responded to the UV.
 
Geonerd said:
 
 
 
The flowers light up nicely and the Bih J pods emit a soft robin's egg blue. 
 
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     Interesting. Are you growing any frutescens? I wonder if the UV reflection is a trait of them since Jolokias are suspected of being a cross of chinense and frutescens.
 
Hybrid Mode 01 said:
 
     Interesting. Are you growing any frutescens? I wonder if the UV reflection is a trait of them since Jolokias are suspected of being a cross of chinense and frutescens.
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Sorry, got no Frooties.  Baccatum, Anuum, and all other Chinense fail to fluoresce to any significant degree.  I'll take some pictures tonight - the Bhut pods are kinda pretty. 
 
Geonerd said:
 
Sorry, got no Frooties.  Baccatum, Anuum, and all other Chinense fail to fluoresce to any significant degree.  I'll take some pictures tonight - the Bhut pods are kinda pretty. 
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     Well at least that doesn't disprove my idea. Now we just need to find somebody with some frutescens plants and a UV light to see if they all glow.
 
Hybrid Mode 01 said:
 
     Well at least that doesn't disprove my idea. Now we just need to find somebody with some frutescens plants and a UV light to see if they all glow.
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Well, maybe i spoke too soon.  My search wasn't the most thorough, and I was focused on looking for worms at the time.  I went out again last night and saw more luminescing pods on several plants. Some chinense and some baccatum.  Here's the thing - two seemingly identical A.Peruvian pods, on the same plant, both roughly the same size and shade of red, fluoresce to significantly different degrees.  Same story for many other plants.  The glowing pods are kinda rare, but many plants have at least a few.  Weird, eh?  I'll try to find the time to do a more thorough investigation...     
 
In the meantime, I found two young worms. Their body glows slightly, a little brighter than old stems, but it is their face that 'pops' out in the dark.   Will post pics when I get more time.  I'm gonna keep one as a pet - something I haven't done since grade school.  :)
 
They don't glow brightly under the light, but are much lighter than the leaves. 
 
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"George," my pet, has two large light areas, one on his forehead and one on his rump, that show well.  The stripes also respond to the light.
 
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Here are two Inca Red Drop pods that light up real well.  This response occurs seemingly randomly among many of my plants.
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p.s.  I found a pair of standard shooting goggles laying about that block the vast majority of the UV.  Anyone using a strong light at close range while looking for honworms ought to wear some manner of -UV eyewear.
 
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