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Tobacco Hornworm

Manduca sexta

Tobacco hornworms on tomato leaves

This caterpillar ravenously eats tomato foliage and sometimes unripe fruit. It grows up to 4 inches long before burying into the ground and pupating.

If it doesn't stay in the ground over winter, it will emerge in 2-3 weeks as a large moth. Then the moth can mate, and reproduce more caterpillars to eat your tomatoes. The adult moth is called the Carolina Sphinx Moth.

Carolina sphinx moth, manduca sexta

The adults lay eggs on your tomatoes. Don't bother looking for eggs -they would be nearly impossible to find.. The caterpillars are first noticeable when you see holes in the leaves. Young hornworm

Very young caterpillars chew holes rather than eat off the edge. When they get bigger, they eat a lot faster and damage will be much more noticeable.

They can be hard to find because of their creen color, but dead giveaways like frass (droppings) and damaged leaves can help you locate the caterpillars. Pick them off by hand and get rid of them.

Parasites

There is a small parasitic wasp that will actually inject its eggs into the caterpillars. The parasites live in the caterpillar for a while, until they are ready to emerge. When they emerge, they spin small white cocoons that are smaller than a grain of rice. The cocoons remain attached to the caterpillars and the caterpillars eventually die from the internal damage caused by the parasites.

People recommend letting the parasitic cocoons hatch, so more wasps are born that will parasitize other caterpillars. If you want to immediately stop damage to your tomato plants, however, you should remove caterpillars as soon as you find them.

If you do find a caterpillar with small white cocoons protruding from its body, don't destroy the cocoons, as they will hatch and more parasitic wasps will help prevent any other hornworms from becoming adult moths. Keeping adult moths away will keep caterpillars away. Some time during the season, though, some moth is bound to find your tomatoes and lay eggs on it. So always keep an eye out for hornworms on your tomatoes, and get them off as soon as you find them.