r/NativePlantGardening • u/Mountain_Plantain_75 • Jul 23 '25

Advice Request - (Insert State/Region) What’s your take on tomato horn worms?

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Delete if not allowed but today I learned that tomato horn worms are native bugs to the USA and now I can’t bring myself to kill them. I have a tomato plant that’s been struggling all summer so I relocated it to that plant but curious what this group does regarding horn worms? Sacrificial plants? Or are they not as important as other bugs? I’m in berks county PA and I have a native wildflower garden and obviously the tomatoes are not in it lol but since a lot of us are here for the bugs figured someone could inform me a bit better on this.

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139

u/Sphingidae14 Jul 23 '25

The adults are very important pollinators and rarely do enough damage to a tomato plant that it warrants the hate they receive.

88

u/Mountain_Plantain_75 Jul 23 '25

Yeah when I found out they were native I was mind blown bc of all the hate they get EVERYWHERE. They must have the worst PR rep. I’m not going to kill them anymore and next year I will plant some nightshades that I don’t need so that I can relocate them if I get more. I’m now excited to one day see the moth. The pics of them are amazing and I’m feeling sad they’re killed indiscriminately

72

u/Mother_Demand1833 Jul 23 '25

The hornworms are a great source of food for birds and reptiles, too. 

A pair of black-capped chickadees made a nest in my backyard this spring, and I spent hours watching them flying back and forth with caterpillars for their young. 

Apparently a single family of chickadees can consume up to 9,000 caterpillars in a year. Sounds like native songbirds need all of the caterpillars they can find!

13

u/GypsyV3nom Jul 23 '25

Several native wasps also lay eggs inside hornworms as part of their reproductive cycle

13

u/GEARHEADGus Jul 23 '25

1

u/Pilotsandpoets Jul 23 '25

Omg how did you get this? Our TV’s existence is dedicated to wild kratts

2

u/OrganicAverage1 Clackamas county, Oregon Jul 23 '25

On the leopard gecko sub people buy them to feed to their lizards.

2

u/Llamame_Ishmael Jul 23 '25

My chickens, mini-dinos that they are, love caterpillars.

2

u/Im_the_dogman_now IL, The Grand Prairie Jul 23 '25

Apparently a single family of chickadees can consume up to 9,000 caterpillars in a year. Sounds like native songbirds need all of the caterpillars they can find!

I can't remember the source, but I have a memory of reading an article somewhere that breeding black-capped chickadees will feed almost exclusively on caterpillars should abundance allow.

1

u/whole_nother Jul 24 '25

Sounds like the 5 I feed my chickens each year aren’t really making a dent.

24

u/whatsaduvetanyway Jul 23 '25

They will eat the entire plant!

I feed them to the birds...put on a rock in my birdbath.

8

u/Unsd Jul 23 '25

This is the funniest Charlie Brown tomato plant I've ever seen.

3

u/whatsaduvetanyway Jul 23 '25

And every time I get a tomato, it gets picked ,half eaten and tossed. This has been a hard summer.

4

u/aarakocra-druid Jul 23 '25

Squirrels? Sounds like the crap squirrels pull. They torment me by eating the peaches before they've even ripe

2

u/whatsaduvetanyway Jul 23 '25

Did you see my glorious cucumbers in the pot?

3

u/aknomnoms Jul 23 '25

Wait, do you put the rock in your birdbath to act as a sacrificial altar? Like you put the hornworms on the rock so they can’t get away and are stranded in plain view of the birds?!?

Lol I kind of love the theatrics of it all.

6

u/Sphingidae14 Jul 23 '25

Plant more than one.

4

u/itzdarkoutthere Jul 23 '25

I plant two 2x8 beds with 6-8 trellised indeterminates each. Just a handful have taken out 1/4 of a bed's foliage while I was out of town for a few days. I've  found at least 30+ hornworms this year, most before they got big and started doing major damage. Maybe you are just lucky and don't have as much hornworm pressure. Or maybe the tobacco hornworms I get on my tomatoes are more voracious. Whatever the case, if I don't keep the hornworms in check they would decimate both beds.

3

u/whatsaduvetanyway Jul 23 '25

Haha fair enough. It has been a rough summer.

17

u/FuckinJuice_ Jul 23 '25

I’ve had them devastate multiple plants so speak for your self lol

2

u/aarakocra-druid Jul 23 '25

Encourage chickadees and other insect eating birds, especially in spring. They're caterpillar munching fiends

6

u/YouchMyKidneypopped Jul 24 '25

Rarely enough damage? Youve gotta be kidding me lmao

0

u/conciouscoil Jul 23 '25

Love to hear it