Tobacco Hornworm (Manduca sexta)

 

Hornworm on volunteer tomato 9/8/2020

Holy smokes! It seems that the hornworms in my garden, which I had always assumed were TOMATO hornworms, are actually TOBACCO hornworms!  Not that it makes a great deal of difference to gardener me, but I just assumed that hornworms that munch on tomato plants would be tomato hornworms.  

As I set out to find that Latin name for the hornworm, I decided to check to make sure that my hornworms really are tomato hornworms.  I spotted an article comparing the two on Margaret Roach's A Way to Garden -- I love her blog, her podcast, and her New York Times column -- so I dove in.  And when she described the fellow above -- seven white stripes with black edges and a red horn on his tail -- she was describing the tobacco hornworm. Her picture matches my picture.  And when I followed her link to the Entomology Department at the University of Florida, I discovered the tomato hornworm looked quite different! So now I can be a little more accurate in naming the life on Salem Road.

The picture above was taken on one of two cherry tomato plants that volunteered at the edge of the compost pile, which is at the north edge of the chicken yard.  I assume it is a Sweet Hundreds, as I have grown those before.  I was delighted when they began producing tomatoes, as I don't have any red cherry tomatoes in the vegetable garden this year.  We've been joking that the chickens are farming these tomatoes, as well as the fine crop of hornworms that have appeared on them.  I've picked more hornworms off those two plants than I have off the 20-so tomato plants that I actually set out this year.  I even picked off a very small hornworm, maybe an inch long.  I had never seen one that small!  And needless to say, the chickens have enjoyed them immensely.  It's hard to remember what I did with hornworms before I had chickens to feed them to!