3 ms·

Finding hawk moth caterpillars on my tomato plant was one of the bigger wtfs of my adult life

• nkozyra 3mo ago
  Honestly you're lucky there were any leaves left. You must have caught it within two or three hours after its arrival. In the US we have similar hawk moths; the tomato hornworm also looks like a hummingbird when it reaches maturity.
  • empyrrhicist 3mo ago
    Once I started leaving just the ones with parasitoid wasp eggs on their backs in the garden, I completely stopped having problems with these guys.
  • jacobolus 3mo ago
    The "hornworm" caterpillars leave amazing poops behind. They look like (not so) little green grenades. Their moths are important pollinators of some nice native flowers.
  • neutronicus 3mo ago
    When I noticed them they were covered in wasp pupae, so maybe that slowed them down. I'm in the Eastern US, btw.