The tomato caterpillar or also known as the tomato hornworm is also known as the Manduca quinquemaculata. Its sister, known as the tobacco hornworm or the Manduca sexta is often mistaken with the tomato caterpillar due to their resemblances in appearance. Moreover, as the tobacco hornworm is also infested the tomato plants, many beginner gardeners think of them as the tomato hornworm.
They are both huge for the size of caterpillars as they can reach the size of three to four inches long when they are fully grown. With that size, it is understandable that they are not going to be mistaken with other types of caterpillars. Both are green and both have similar V markings along their bodies. However, the tomato caterpillar has the diagonal white markings and the horns are red.
The tomato hornworms is the larval stage of the sphinx moth or also popular by the name of the hawk moth and the hummingbird moth. However, not many people would like to know about this as they are already too annoyed with the hornworms ability to destroy tomato plants. They usually lay egg during the winter. The eggs are greenish white and they are round.
The eggs can be found at the undersides of the tomato leaves. The eggs will hatch in only four or five days and then there will be the hornworms. These baby hornworms will only need one month to reach their fully grown size and their appetite will be the worst during this stage.
The tomato hornworms have the ability to eat an entire leave and also destroy parts of the immature tomato fruit in only one night. Although they have the name of tomato hornworms, but these caterpillars also leave in other plants such as peppers, eggplants and also tomatoes. To see if there are the worms in the plants, all you need to do is to follow the damage that they have done and believe me, the damages are easy to see.
Besides the trail of damages, you can also try to see if there are black frass around the plants as these are the droppings of the worms. When there is a tomato hornworm, there will be many droppings as they also eat a lot. The most likely place to find the droppings is the base of the tomato plants. These worms are dangerous to the plants as their hearty appetite can destroy one single plant in only a matter of days.
