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Tomato Hornworm

URGENT!!!
Need something to rid these things. Fond 10 in the last 2 days. Where do they come from, and how to get rid before they eat all my plants
 
Its not that big of a deal if you get them all.
 
You have to think about their life cycle, they are all most likely sibblings born of the same hatch. They are easy to find, just look for the poop that falls from them.
hornworm-frass.jpg

 
Its like a flag that says "Im right up here ^^^"
 
 
If you have a light on at night  near your peppers then you WILL GET THEM! Moths are attracted to light.
 
Personally I am excited to get these guys because my Beared Dragon eats them like candy. I may even try breeding them if I get a few.
 
Its not worth poisoning them, just pull them off and step on them. Dont wait too long because these little piggies will eat lots of leaf if they get a chance.
 
Pick and destroy all you can find... Then treat the plants to a spraying of liquid BT (bacillus thurengesis), that'll keep em in check!
 
Dude!!
 
My first year growing peppers I grew 60 peppers in 60 buckets. Had them all bunched together. Things were going great and then….THEY came...
 
I had easily over 100 that season… Never seen them before ever. Like they came out of nowhere.
 
Or maybe it was the same 10 lol.
 
They devoured my plants! BUT they would shoot out tons of new growth quickly. Still managed a good harvest overall.
 
Those suckers are huge and menacing looking heh. Basically I would take a stick each day and launch them across the yard. 
 
They do turn into some pretty awesome moths/butterflys?
 
Wish I had advice :( Hell wish I had pictures from that year… it was like a horror movie...
 
I had them last year, i just picked them off after finding them by seeing the poop as stated above. The moths lay eggs in leaves that curl together with some sticky stuff i eventually found out. Look for those coiled up leaves and burn em... Lol
 
JutsFL said:
Pick and destroy all you can find... Then treat the plants to a spraying of liquid BT (bacillus thurengesis), that'll keep em in check!
 
And all your beneficials as well. There goes the neighborhood, when the little green guys move in and do more damage than the hornworms and are harder to control.
 
I have my plants on my balcony.  I do like 2-4 hours of T5 lighting to supplement the shade of the sun.  Ive never really seen months at all.  BUT i am now concerned that I will get these... my plants are just barely recovering from a bunch of ailments.
 
Fortunately, I have enough wasps hanging around the property that by the time I see a hornworm they are usually paralyzed and covered w/ white wasp larvae so I usually don't bother w/ them, but I've seen the damage they cause and they are evil!
 
Go to Home Depot and get some of this stuff( No, not peppers with holes in them!!)  Sorry about the picture showing half the label, but it's called Thuricide. 
 
hmm, I like that it's biological but what else will it kill?  that's one of the things that is always a risk when using controls like that.  I think the safest method of control for me is definitely using my own hands.
 
I think there was a guy in here that kept posting hornworm recipes last year XD
 
ikeepfish said:
hmm, I like that it's biological but what else will it kill?  that's one of the things that is always a risk when using controls like that.  I think the safest method of control for me is definitely using my own hands.
 
I think there was a guy in here that kept posting hornworm recipes last year XD
 
Aww puke. Who the deuce would cook with hornworms? or has more than one recipe? XD
 
Cayennemist said:
 
And all your beneficials as well. There goes the neighborhood, when the little green guys move in and do more damage than the hornworms and are harder to control.
 
I don't think all beneficials are effected equally, off the top of my head I'm pretty sure lacewings are in the clear. I believe it has to be ingested to be truly effective, and most benes aren't chewing on your leaves. (Ah crap now he's trolling you about BT :P)
 
But regardless, you're right about aphids appearing after BT. And mites. And everything else unaffected.
 
An open playing field with few predators or competitive eaters? Dinner time bitches :rofl:
 
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