Tomato hornworms are a natural enemy of tomato plants and are known to devour the whole thing in a day or so. These creatures might leave telltale signs, such as droppings and stripped foliage and holes in leaves to let you know they’re there. A quick inspection might leave you wondering, where tomato hornworms go during the day?
How Do You Find Tomato Hornworms?
Tomato hornworms are quite easy to spot when they’re out in the open. In the contrast to the soil or red tomato, you’ll find them crawling about and looking for juicy stems and leaves. However, hornworms seem to disappear during the day.
These pesky insects are in your tomato plant during the day, perfectly blending in the green background with their similar-colored bodies. It’s a survival mechanism hornworms have so they won’t be visible to predators and can continue eating in the night unperturbed.
Tomato Hornworms hide underneath the leaves and within plants in the daytime. You may not be able to see them per se, but you can check other signs that hornworms have been feasting in your tomato garden, which include black, barrel-shaped droppings and bare stems that had leaves before.
Aside from looking at the tomato plants closely, you can also spray your plants with jets of water to try and get the hornworms out of hiding. When agitated, these insects will usually move to another location where they won’t be disturbed.
You’ll know a tomato hornworm from a regular caterpillar by its namesake- there are black ‘horns’ on its back, or red if it’s the tobacco hornworm. They are voracious eaters and can reduce your tomato garden in just a week or two.
How Do You Get Rid of Pests?
Once you know that you’re dealing with a tomato hornworm infestation in your garden then the rest will be easy. You can do the following to control or prevent hornworms from eating up your tomato plants:
- Handpick and drown
- Use a non-systemic insecticide
- Till your garden
- Use a natural pesticide
Handpick the Worms
The good news is that tomato hornworms do not attack in numbers, and you can usually prevent devastation by diligently finding them and hand-picking the insects.
Have a bucket of soapy water ready, or if you have chickens you can feed the hornworms to them.
Till Your Garden
Tilling your soil before planting and after harvest can greatly diminish the instances of a tomato hornworm invasion.
It’s recommended that you till in early spring and after picking the tomatoes to eliminate overwintering insects and pests.
Use a Natural Pesticide
You can get rid of tomato hornworms with natural, DIY pesticides such as a spray with soap and water or BT (bacillus thuringiensis), which is organic and short-lived.
Both solutions won’t cause harm to your tomato plant or its fruit, as well as beneficial insects that might be living in the soil.
Alternatively, you can spray cayenne pepper on the leaves and the base of the plant to repel the hornworms and prevent them from coming back.
Related Article: Do Tomato Plants Come Back?